VU and RUG soon PKN’s only theological schools

UTRECHT – The board of governors of the Protestant Theological University, which has departments at a number of universities as part of faculties of religion, has decided to concentrate its theological training at the Free University (VU) of Amsterdam and the Groningen State University (RUG). Theological training at Leiden University, the country’s oldest, at University Utrecht and Kampen will be phased out. The governors have concluded that theological training at these three locations would become difficult to maintain given the number of students, while Theological University Kampen (Oudestraat) lacked the broader academic context. The synod of the Protestant Church (PKN) signed off on the governors’ decision. In the past, when both Kampen and the VU supplied ministerial candidates to the Reformed Churches (GKN), every attempt to merge failed over historic precedents and differences. Kampen was founded by the Secession Churches in 1854 and the Free University by Abraham Kuyper when still part of the Reformed Church (NHK).