College

Senior citizens in Tilburg still tend to talk about “the college” when they are referring to the University. This is so because Tilburg University used to be a College (or Hogeschool) up until 1986. The name “college” was used for institutions that provided university-level programs but lacked the comprehensive range that the classic universities were offering. In those days, this included the College for Commercial Trade in Rotterdam and the tree technical colleges in Delft, Eindhoven and Enschede.

Name changes

In 1986, all colleges were given the predicate of “university,” which sparked off a chain of name changes, as all institutions for higher professional education in our country then became “hogescholen” from then on. In Brabant, this led to the establishment of the Fontys, Avans and NHTV Breda colleges, offering higher professional programs in economic, administrative, social, technical and educational domains, and calling themselves (in English) “university of applied sciences.” The institutional distinction we make between scientific and higher professional education ‒ the so-called “binary system” ‒ is fairly uncommon in other countries. But the distinction is blurring in the Netherlands too. Both universities and colleges may call themselves “universities” in English, both use the Bachelor’s-Master’s system and there are even colleges that have been accredited to supply scientific education (such as Leisure Studies at the Breda University of Applied Sciences). Colleges are now also running research programs and may appoint lectors.

Foundation

The Roman Catholic Business School was founded in 1927 on the premises of the Catholic College, a higher professional college that had been established in town since 1918 with four departments: general sciences, an academy for visual arts and technical subjects, a conservatory and the business school. The founder of these teacher training programs was Hendrik Moller, a man whose ambition it was to provide the Business School with an academic status. A pie in the sky, some thought, and it did indeed take some years for the young College to be granted official governmental recognition (and funding). Without Moller’s ambition, however, Tilburg might never have had its College nor, evidently, its University.

The Catholic College building, situated on what was then Bosscheweg and is now Tivolistraat. It was right opposite what is now Villamedia, on the site of the current garden of the Interpolis insurance company.