HZ is developing a Master's degree program in Vitality
The HZ University of Applied Sciences, partner of CELTH, is developing a master's degree program in Vitality. Ultimately, the training should help to improve the quality of life and the business climate in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and attract new and existing students and workers, both within and outside Zeeland.
How does Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and Zeeland remain vital?
The master's degree, with the work title Developing Vital Regions in Rural Coastal Areas, focuses on the academic knowledge and skills you need for innovations in the vitality of target groups and regions. There will be two living labs in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen in which students, researchers and stakeholders in the field will work together on innovative solutions for the structural reinforcement of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and Zeeland. How does the region and province remain vital and how do you attract knowledge workers from within and outside Zeeland. These are examples of issues they are investigating.
It's up to Zeeland itself
The development of the master's degree is part of the so called Region Deal 'people of Zeeland own move' and it started in September 2021. The initiators are continuing on the current knowledge development in the Applied Research Center (ARC) Vitality of the HZ. The ARC is a bundle of research groups and knowledge centers who will come up with innovative solutions for current economic and social issues about vital living, learning, entrepreneurship and recreation in the dynamic Zeeland Delta.
Vitality has an effect on residents and guests in the region, but also on the living environment (vital neighbourhoods, villages and cities) and economic entities, such as vital companies. At the ARC they make crossovers between these, until now, mostly separate sectors. As a result, the research groups and knowledge centers contribute to the smart, sustainable and inclusive growth of vitality in the region, in the social, economic and leisure domains.
Social innovation
The (research) projects within the master focus on social innovation to strengthen vitality. In the development and implementation, there is structural national and international cooperation with Centers of Expertise and the University of Antwerp. As a result, the master's program also contributes to regional and cross-border cooperation.