Tio is a private University of Applied Sciences for hospitality and tourism, founded in 1969. The name is the abbreviation of the Dutch term Toeristische Informatie Opleidingen, which means education in the field of information for tourism.

Tio offers quality education (mainly in Dutch) to students who want to obtain a bachelor’s degree in three years. A student needs to obtain 240 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) credits before he/she can be awarded a degree. Tio has three-year bachelor courses: this means that not 60 ECTS credits but 80 ECTS credits need to be obtained per year. Work placements take place during the summer holidays. The increased workload per year means students have to work really hard and be serious about their education.

Acting as a private University of Applied Sciences it means that Tio is not publicly funded by government and it receives no state funding. Tio is, however, fully recognised by the Dutch government and accredited by the NVAO (Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organisation). Government recognition means that (Dutch) students can obtain government grants and support loans.

History

At the beginning of the 1970’s there was a huge increase in tourism. This resulted in a demand for qualified and trained personnel. As no training in the field of tourism existed at that time, the work field cooperated in the establishment of three specialised trade schools, of which Tio was one. The other schools were the AVR trade school (the ANVR is the Dutch association for travel agents and tour operators) and the AVV trade school (the ANVV is the association for tourist information centres).

The trade schools offered short job-related courses aimed at the practical needs of the work field. The excellent job opportunities for students after completing a course made sure the schools’ courses were renowned. In the beginning the courses received funding from the government. However, at the end of the 1980’s funding was withdrawn and the schools were forced to adopt a more market-driven approach. For Tio it meant that after opening subsidiaries in Haarlem and ’s-Hertogenbosch in 1988, it continued as a private enterprise in 1991. In 1993 Tio acquired the AVV trade school and one year later in 1994 it bought the other trade school, the AVR. The most recent acquisition was the hospitality course at Tunon in 1997.

Thus, Tio University of Applied Sciences was one of the first education providers in field of hospitality and tourism in the Netherlands and has been training people for a variety of jobs in this area since 1969.