News about education in the Netherlands

In three years' time the faculty of Economics and Business administration aims to offer all its Master's programmes, except Fiscal Economics, in English. Marketing Management is afraid of losing its appeal.

It is clear from those who go out to recruit talented students for their university that many prospective students consult global rankings. This increases the imperative to deal with this issue.

VU professor Elies Steygers talks about smokers’ rights in Trouw. Job applicants who smoke needn’t worry about missing out on career opportunities as a result.

The Tilburg School of Politics and Public Administration is also participating in this experiment. But not one university tackled the experiment as broadly as did Leiden. Last year, there were test exams for the study programmes in French, German, Italian, history, and law.

From August 2006, every student at Tilburg University will receive twelve language vouchers. Each voucher will be worth one ECTS credit. Using these vouchers, students can take an average of two language courses at the Language Centre during their studies.

Second-year law students will be immersed in an English-language programme for a week each year. The English language will also be more interwoven in the regular study programmes, including the examinations.

Next academic year, Universiteit Maastricht will start a Bachelors study of European public health. The education ministry gave the go-ahead this week.

Nyenrode Business Universiteit and European Pilot Selection & Training (EPST) have developed a program intended specifically for pilots. The objective of this Basic Management Training (BMT) for upcoming or recently graduated pilots is to give them a better understanding of the management within an airline to clarify how airline companies are run.

The number of doctorates at Leiden University rose strongly last year. At the end of 2005, there were 289, an increase of 49 over 2004. The biggest increases were in the faculties of Law and Mathematics and Natural Sciences, with each faculty gaining fifteen more new doctors.

The Erasmus scholarship is going up. In 2007, it will increase from 150 to 175 euros and by 2013 it will have risen to 250 euros. But because the budget for Erasmus scholarships is hardly increasing in proportion, far fewer students will be eligible. Nuffic expects the number of Erasumus scholarships to fall from 5,000 to 2,500 in 2007.