News about education in the Netherlands

The average age of a PhD student in the Netherlands is 29, an overwhelming majority are women - and 40 percent are foreigners, according to new research by careers magazine Intermediair (IM).

Tilburg University is looking for international students who would like to be part of the new International Sounding Board. Students who participate will provide the university with information about their country and culture, to help Tilburg University recruit students from their home countries. In addition, the participants will have a chance to voice their opinions about what is wrong and what is right at Tilburg University.

The Leiden Russian Summer School offers five advanced intensive master classes. In the morning, Jos Schaeken en Daniel Collins will teach an intensive course on the birch-bark documents, giving an introduction in their language, contents and contexts.

AMSTERDAM - Chairman of employers' organisation VNO-NCW Bernard Wientjes is annoyed that the four large cities are urging Parliament not to fully open the borders to workers from Eastern Europe yet.

Spreken we Nederlands or should we talk English? Foreign PhDs need to understand the Dutch language for daily business. Heejung Chung and Annekathrin Ellersiek aim to raise awareness of the possible isolation of foreign PhD students because of the language barrier.

The new PhD procedure is a more effective guarantee of the quality of PhD theses. Nevertheless, a group of prominent professors has pointed out a number of weak points.

As of this year all Tilburg University lecturers, students, policy advisors, service desk personnel, administrative personnel, and secretaries will be required to take an English-language test.

Next academic year, the Faculty of Law will start a top class for the better bachelor's students. In addition to the standard study programme, the top-class students will take classes with extra depth.

Roel Mehlkopf (24, research master's, finance) and Victor Vlam (22, law) reached the semi-finals of the world debating championships for universities last week, in the category English as a second language.

The start of a new year invariably signals legislative change. We list the most important ones, from purchasing power to integration.