The Thorbecke Academy in Assen will be moving next year. Not to the Johan Willem Friso barracks on the Vaart, which was the initial plan, but to an office building on the Industrieweg. Director Richard Delger says he can no longer wait for space on the barracks site.
According to Delger, there are still all kinds of discussions going on around the location at the barracks between Defense, the Central Government Real Estate Agency, the province of Drenthe and the municipality of Assen. “It’s still a long way from renovating everything there. And I don’t have time to wait for it anymore. I need to have enough space for my students.”
The Thorbecke Academy, part of NHL Stenden, is counting on around three hundred students in Assen next September. “They no longer fit on the Zuidersingel. We started there in 2021 with work studios intended for around 150 to 200 students,” explains Delger.
“That number has now grown considerably. We are also renting an extra space in Podium Zuidhaege, but that doesn’t make it any longer. And I didn’t want a third location. The office building on the Industrieweg came at just the right time.”
Initially, the Thorbecke Academy will rent the top floor of the office building there, with an option for another floor. Before the HBO students of Integrated Safety Science can go there, renovations still have to be done. That will happen early next year.
360,000 euros have already been made available for this purpose. Money that Assen and the province of Drenthe had jointly earmarked for temporary housing at the barracks. “But we can now use that for this place,” says Delger.
The Safety Campus, which starts the higher professional education course with the University of the North and DC Terra, will also first be located on the Industrieweg and not at the JWF barracks. “As long as parties are still negotiating about how the redevelopment of the historic barracks buildings along the Vaart should be arranged, we cannot continue there.” According to Delger, the plan to move to the Asser barracks has not been canceled.
“That was the intention and it still is, but we will be on the Industrieweg for five years.” In the meantime, the municipality and province must sit down with Defense and the Central Government Real Estate Agency when it comes to repurposing the barracks buildings that they want to dispose of. “There is still uncertainty about many things, such as the renovation, who pays for what and who will soon be the landlord,” Delger continues, “And I am pressed for time. My interest is a good place for my students.”