Saxion is a University of Applied Sciences that originated from the rich educational history of the city of books Deventer and from the social initiatives of enterprising textile traders from Twente. Ever since the 13th century, Deventer has been a bastion of books and knowledge. In the 15th century, Desiderius Erasmus was one of the many students walking the streets of Deventer. Students came from far and near, and Latin was their lingua franca. The Deventer-based Athenaeum Illustre, founded in the 17th century, was a school for academic education. The institution can be regarded as a distant precursor of Saxion.
In the final days of the Athenaeum Illustre, the Twente Industrial and Trade School was founded in Twente in 1864. It was financed by industrialists and traders from the textiles industry. With the founding of schools for secondary technical education, such as the Hogere Textielschool De Maere, technical education in Twente was on the rise. Education in Twente was strongly rooted in society. Entrepreneurs provided financing, took care of the management, recruited lecturers and offered opportunities for internships.
In Deventer as well as in Enschede and Hengelo, the educational offerings expanded considerably after the Second World War. In the sixties and seventies of the last century, many new and diverse degree programmes were initiated and the number of students increased considerably. After a management merger in the Stichting Hogescholen Oost-Nederland (HON) on 1 January 1998, Enschede started developing a city campus.
In the year 2000, the teaching foundation was given a new name. Rijkshogeschool IJselland and Hogeschool Enschede continued together as Saxion. In 2001, the university of applied sciences expanded its educational activities to Apeldoorn. Today, Saxion is a University of Applied Sciences in the east of the Netherlands where knowledge and technology, stemming from the rich history of the region, are more than ever the foundations for teaching and applied research.
When Desiderius Erasmus walked through the streets of Deventer in 1478, the Hanseatic city on the IJssel River was already a knowledge centre. Near the Latin School, where Erasmus had enrolled and would spend four years studying, Richard Pafraet's book press was doing overtime. The ambitious printer from Cologne had settled in Deventer a year earlier because he saw sufficient market potential for his books. Deventer had already become a city with a rich culture of literacy, partly thanks to the efforts of Geert Grote and the ‘Moderne Devoten’ (a religious revival group). Obviously, educational institutions benefited enormously from this. The Latin school was a product of the 13th-century collegiate school of the Lebuïnus church. The institute, which now falls under the responsibility of the city council, had a good reputation and drew students from far and near. The city streets teemed with students. Latin was the language of instruction in this medieval form of internationalization.
In 1630, education in Deventer received a new impulse from the arrival of a school for academic education: the Athenaeum Illustre, where Latin School students could continue their studies. When the University of Harderwijk was discontinued in 1811, the Deventer city council visited King William I at the palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn. They set out by carriage to the King's residence in Apeldoorn to ask him to grant the University of Harderwijk’s scientific book collection to the city of Deventer. The universities of Amsterdam and Leiden were too late. The Athenaeum library was assigned the management of the special book collection, which thus became available to educational institutions in Deventer. The Athenaeum Illustre, the institution that can be regarded as the distant Deventer precursor of Saxion, existed until 1878 and was replaced by a gymnasium and a HBS (former Dutch High School for the 12-18 year age group).
In the final days of the Athenaeum Illustre, the Twente Industrial and Trade School was founded in Twente in 1864. The school was a private initiative, financed by industrialists and traders from the textiles industry. In 1886, it became the Dutch School for Industry and Trade, offering one-year, three-year and four-year vocational degree programmes. Through the creation of secondary technical education, the Dutch Technical Education Act (1919) laid the foundation for current higher vocational education. In 1922, the De Maere Higher School for Textiles opened its doors at the Ariënsplein in Enschede and from 1939 onwards technical education in Enschede was also on the rise. Both schools laid the foundation for higher vocational education in Enschede. Moreover, the educational institutions in Twente were strongly rooted in society. Entrepreneurs provided financing, took care of the management, recruited lecturers and offered opportunities for internships.
In Deventer as well as in Enschede and Hengelo, the educational offerings expanded considerably after the Second World War. In the sixties and seventies of the last century, many new and diverse degree programmes were initiated and the number of students increased considerably. In the second half of the 1980s, several educational institutions in Deventer and Twente merged their operations, albeit within their own geographic area. In 1986, the schools in Deventer continued under one name: Hogeschool IJselland. Ten years later, the degree programmes moved to a new building on the Handelskade. Several mergers in Twente, including those of De Maere and the HTS (higher technical education) degree programmes in Enschede and Hengelo, produced the University of Applied Sciences in Enschede in 1989.
After a management merger in the Stichting Hogescholen Oost-Nederland (HON) on 1 January 1998, Enschede started developing a city campus. This happened on historical ground, the former Stadsweide, where the large textile tycoons resided at the time. In the year 2000, the teaching foundation was given a new name. Rijkshogeschool IJselland and Hogeschool Enschede continued together as Saxion. The name refers to the Saxons, a group of people that once inhabited the eastern part of the Netherlands. In 2001, Saxion expanded its educational activities to Apeldoorn and set up a number of degree programmes in 2016 in the renovated office building of the former Nettenfabriek, which is considered an industrial heritage site. The story of Saxion thus takes us from the city of books Deventer, to the blue-blooded city of Apeldoorn, to the proud textile entrepreneurs of Twente, and to where we are today: a University of Applied Sciences in the east of the Netherlands, where knowledge and technology, stemming from the rich history of the region, are more than ever the foundations for teaching and applied research.