P. Boezerooy

Higher Education and Graduate Employment in the Netherlands

There are 13 universities, nine of which provide teaching and conduct research in a wide range of disciplines in arts and sciences. Three (technical) universities offer courses mainly in science and engineering subjects and one is specialised in agricultural sciences. The HBO sector was established in the late 1960s when colleges for higher vocational training were upgraded. Major reforms in this sector resulted in the amalgamation of more than 400 smaller institutions oriented towards specific professional fields into large institutions providing a wide range of vocationallyoriented courses, with a standard period of study of four years. Today, there are some 65 HBO institutions providing theoretical and practical training with a clear vocational orientation. They have an important societal task of transferring and developing knowledge for the benefit of the professions in both the industrial and service sectors. In addition, other institutions are considered as higher education institutions. First, there are a limited number with ‘university status’, such as the institutes of theology and the university of business administration. Second, there are a number of private institutions which offer courses in various professional fields such as economics, management, and engineering. Often these are structured as distance learning courses and recently more institutions have been seeking recognition from the Ministry of Education to issue diplomas at HBO-level. Third, the Open University provides both university and HBO degrees through distance learning with a number of support centres around the country. The first university degree is close to the master degree. It is obtained after a standard four-year course. Exceptions are several science and engineering courses mainly at the three technical universities and increasingly at the general universities which, as from 1995, last for five years. Medicine, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine studies last for six years. The HBOs award the first degree after four years. In the past, the length of study varied from three to six years, depending on the field. Since 1986, it has