History of EuNC

The college began as a vision in 1963 in the minds and hearts of Jerald Johnson, serving in Germany, and Bob Cerrato, of Italy. The vision was to serve continental Europe by training persons for ministry.

 

  


A building was found in a little German village surrounded bySwitzerland, the village of Büsingen. The mandate of the college was to be international in scope, with English as the medium of instruction, and to prepare persons for ordination and Christian service. The school was called European Nazarene Bible College (ENBC) and was established in 1965 with Rev. John B. Nielson as its first rector; classes began 10 January 1966.

Throughout its existence, the college has stayed focused on fulfilling its original purpose. In 1977, the school affiliated itself with MidAmerica Nazarene University, through which it was able to offer a fully accredited Bachelor of Arts degree. In the early 1990’s, as an immediate result of the fall of Communism and the lifting of the Iron Curtain, the school started theological education by extension and, through this, expanded its mission to include many students from various countries who were not able to study at the campus in Büsingen and/or study in the English language. In 2001, the name was changed to European Nazarene College (EuNC).  This change had been several years in coming, and it was accepted in the hope that the new name would reflect the institution’s educational profile more accurately. As an international college, EuNC has consistently been a campus community formed of students from an average of 15 different countries, and it currently has learning centres in more than 15 European countries.

Realising that the rapidly changing European environment demanded a drastic change in the way EuNC provided theological education for ministry, the school started a 7-year self-change project in Autumn 2004. In January 2006, the Board of Trustees accepted the new strategy Moving Forward that emerged out of this project. The strategy reaffirms the mission and vision statement of EuNC and outlines the organisational priorities for the future of being “one multicultural and multinational school with one campus and administrative centre and many teaching locations in various European countries" and aiming at “a high mobility of faculty and students between the campus and the various locations, with the goal of exposing them to the best of residential and extension education."

EuNC is currently working on implementing the Moving Forward strategy.  EuNC has been working to adapt its academic and administrative structures to better support a multi-site school with one overall faculty and student network, living and studying in different countries, and one curriculum with room for contextualisation within the various European cultures.  This work is ongoing, but 2007/08 was a critical year for this endeavour.  In 2007/08 a new, outcomes based curriculum, relevant to the diverse European context was launched.  Structured around a modular course offering and modular schedule, this new curriculum increases access for non-traditional learners and allows for greater faculty mobility. That same year, the school also adopted the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS).