Netherlands' Education Updates

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Netherlands has started taking steps to make it more attractive for International scholars. Towards this, Universities are trying to put students in touch with potential employers before they have completed their studies. Also educate students with better career opportunities and offering them languages courses are a part of it. The nation is hoping that all these reforms help more overseas talent remain in the Netherlands after completing their studies.

The “Make it in The Netherlands” is an action plan that include a range of measures to attract international students. International students build up International character of Dutch Higher Education and boost the success rate. Also the job market is desperately looking for some foreign talent. According to the survey reports, while 72% of overseas students show interest to stay on in Holland after their studies, a ball point figure of 27% is actually doing so. 

Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER) has recently published an advisory report shows that the language plays a vital role behind people’s decisions to stay. Though the Dutch generally speaks good English, International students are expected to expertise the Dutch language if they want to stay on in this country and find a job. Thus the nation wants to endow with the languages courses.

The SER also identifies the importance of cultural integration and tighten the belt in its service. The body is getting Dutch “buddies” to help their foreign peers find their way around and also finding ways of getting a better mix of Dutch and foreign students.

It is collecting points to improvement. Greater efforts are being made to aspire and alert International students to the 1000 scholarships offered in the context of the Technology Pact. Existing arrangements are also upgraded for helping foreign students find jobs after completing their studies. 

Improvements to the www.careerinholland.nl site will make it a valuable hub (even more than it is now) for any job-related information in the Netherlands, such as courses, job vacancies, and help in starting your own business.

Minister Jet Buss maker, the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, launched the “Make it in the Netherlands” action plan in the presence of no fewer than 900 international students, during the NL4Talents careers event. The action plan was drawn up together with Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers (VNO-NCW), the Dutch Higher Education Network for International Marketing (Dhenim), the Netherlands organization for international cooperation in higher education (Nuffic), the Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences, SME Netherlands, Brainport Eindhoven, Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), Kences (student accommodation organization),the Dutch Student Union (LSVb), FNV Jong (trade union), FNV Jong (trade union), and Organization for International Interstedelijk Studenten Overleg (ISO).

The Social and Economic Council recently published an advisory opinion entitled 'Make it in the Netherlands!’ which highlights the priority of luring talented foreign students. The government recognizes that International students are a boon not only for higher education institutions but also for the private sector and the Netherlands as a whole. It also agrees that International students contribute considerable economic value they could also result in a larger pool of skilled workers for certain sectors, like hi-tech R&D.

The Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) estimates that, if one out of five International students stays in Netherlands after graduating, public revenues would increase by €740 million. The good news is even foreign students are also keen to stay in Netherlands after graduation. As per the survey reports, almost 64% of Master's student’s and the same percentile of PhD students plan to stay in the Netherlands if they have already gained some work experience here during their studies.

The Holland International Study Centre (ISC), based in Amsterdam, offers learning standards required for admission to Holland’s leading Universities and also provides the English language and learning standards required for admission to Holland's leading universities. The Dutch education system is famous for its pioneering approaches in business and architecture. This draws almost 80,000 International students every year.

The number of international students studying at Dutch higher education institutions keeps increasing.

This is a remarkable progress for a nation which has introduced full-cost fees for non-EU international students few years ago.

The efforts of the Netherlands Education Support Offices (NESOs) and the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education (Nuffic) seem to have paid off. The Netherlands is at the high end of international higher education in both European and international comparisons. 

The number of international students is increasing, in absolute numbers and in terms of their percentage of the total student body. At a conference on student housing and higher education with the ambitious title “The Next European Renaissance: The rise of the university city”, held in Amsterdam on 12 November, a British investor in student housing stated that he was so glad to see that Dutch universities were able to recruit more students from the Far East.

For the past few years, the Netherlands has increasingly focused on high-quality and English-taught programmes. It also prioritizes humanities and social sciences rather than STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects.

Since January 2011, the Netherlands is following a new accreditation system. As per the new procedure, along with the above described process, the higher education institutions can request the NVAO to conduct an ‘institutional quality evaluation’ to determine to what extent the institution is capable of assuring the quality about the programmes it offers.

In 1985, the electronics giant Philips, began as a small light-bulb manufacturer in Eindhoven. This has brought the university into existence.

Later the electronic behemoth roped in the Graduates from TUE and from other top Dutch universities. The company later had its credit to generate from the first laserdisc players to the way back CD, audio and video cassettes.

The University enjoys full marks for industry income for the academic year 2011-12 among seven Universities in the top 200.

With the University links with the Company, it is unsurprising that TUE was one of just seven universities in the top 200 of the 2011-12 rankings to enjoy full marks for industry income.

But now it’s the company’s by-products in the "Brainport" region around Eindhoven, which are increasingly becoming important to the university's industrial links.

"Philips is smaller now, but the nest is producing a lot of by-products," says Steinbuch, who recognizes truck firm Daf and semiconductor giants NXP and ASML as key competitors locally.

The University has recruited 250 additional professors from industry to work one day a week along with its own 230 full-time professors.

On campus, students are going mad about real technological innovations. One project is to develop a remote-controlled robot capable of inserting a needle into the eyeball to perform retinal surgery.

Offering all master's and PhD programmes in English, TUE is now luring hundreds of foreign students and its present student body ofis set to increase to 11,000 by 2020.

"There is a huge demand for engineers that we are just unable to supply enough," admits Hans van Duijn, the university's rector magnificus.

The nation’s largest and oldest technical University, Delft University of Technology, also boasts the top score in the industry income category of the World University Rankings.

Here, projects are on their way to develop boat design for Damen Shipyards and speed control technology for Nissan and to refine drilling techniques for Shell.

The University has recently founded its own branch for research in Beijing, specializing in energy-efficient LED lighting, which complements high-tech facilities in the Netherlands ranging from nuclear reactor to flight simulators to wind tunnels.

But maximizing industry revenue is only part of the story; the Holland's higher education sector has a strong track record in research. With 30,000 research papers produced each year, Holland’s higher education sector has a strong track record in research. According to a report on scientific indicators by the Dutch education ministry, annually, at least one Dutch author is listing with an average of 73 publications out of 100 researchers, in international scientific publications. This is double the global average.

According to the Dutch Observatory of Science and Technology, majority of the papers are published in English and have a high citation impact of 1.33, which is 33 percent above the world average, comparing with UK of 1.26, US of 1.34 and the neighboring country Switzerland of 1.44.

From the early 1980s, "a clear difference was made between good and bad research and the money you are going to receive depends upon the kind of research you did. It helps in raising the overall quality, if people in charge feel that directly”, explains Dymph van den Boom, rector magnificus at the University of Amsterdam.