Today is the start of the Healthy Living Challenge Week at HAS University of Applied Sciences, challenging everyone to focus on their health. The challenge is inspired by the new 4-year Healthy Living study programme, starting in September 2019 at HAS University of Applied Sciences in Venlo. The new study programme concentrates on improving people’s health by developing innovative concepts in food, lifestyle and the living environment and preventing illnesses rather than curing them.
Increasing the range of study programmes
The HAS branch in Venlo is faced with the challenge of expanding to a total of 800 students within the next few years. To do this, we are extending the range of our study programmes. Healthy Living will start in the 2019-2020 academic year as a specialisation within the Food Innovation study programme in Venlo. We will then start the process of offering this specialisation as a separate programme accredited by CROHO (the Dutch Central Registry of Higher Education Programmes) by 2020. For the time being, we will be positioning this variant of Food Innovation externally as a study programme, as we now do for other variants of CROHO-registered study programmes such as Horticulture & Business Management.
National Prevention Agreement
Our motivation for offering Healthy Living as a study programme is society’s ever-growing attention for prevention of lifestyle-related illnesses. It is also high on the political agenda. The Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Wellbeing and Sport is currently writing a National Prevention Agreement focussing on improving the quality of life for citizens, with prevention at its core.
Diet, lifestyle and the living environment
Because there are still many challenges when it comes to prevention, there is an increasing demand for professionals who can work in the field. Examples are advisers, product developers, designers and lifestyle coaches. Healthy Living is our response to this. Prevention is a broad theme, so the Healthy Living study programme specifically focusses on those areas where HAS University of Applied Sciences already has a great deal of expertise thanks to its other study programmes, i.e. food and the living environment. For lifestyle matters, we will be seeking close collaborations with other academic institutions.
Limburg: the healthiest region
HAS University of Applied Sciences specifically chose Venlo as its location. The North Limburg region aims to become the healthiest region in Europe for living, working and recreation by 2025. The government, entrepreneurs and education have joined forces to achieve this ambition. In the years to come, this will result in a variety of projects and campaigns and HAS University of Applied Sciences is keen to be part of it. This is why finding ways to collaborate with partner companies from the region is very important to HAS.
Healthy Living Challenge Week
To tie in with the new study programme, today is the start of the Healthy Living Challenge Week where HAS University of Applied Sciences is challenging students, lecturers and anyone else who is interested to focus on health for the week. Based on achievable goals, HAS wants everyone to experience how fun and easy it can be to be aware of your health in your normal day-to-day life. We are focussing on doing this challenge together because together we’re stronger. What’s more, you could win prizes such as an Escape Room experience with your friends, a food gift voucher worth €15 for Beej Benders or delicious soup from De SoepKetel (all in Venlo).
Follow the challenge via the Instagram account @healthylivingHAS or www.hasuniversity.nl
Open day
On 24 November, we will be holding an open day at HAS University of Applied Sciences in Venlo. Come and hear the first information about the new Healthy Living study programme. More information on www.hasuniversity.nl