The University System In The Netherlands (Part 2)

Organization of studies 

a) Types of training

At the university, there are only training courses following the LMD reform that took place in September 2002. The first degree opening to professional life is obtained after three years of study and corresponds to the Bachelor's degree. "Professional" education, strictly speaking, is provided in the hogescholen whose first cycle lasts four years. The first year is a propaedeutic.

     The bachelor-master reform that took place 5 years ago led to important changes in the general organization of studies in the Netherlands. The first cycle lasts three years and the master one or two years. The pursuit of university studies consists in obtaining a doctorate (only in universities, this diploma does not exist in hogescholen). This new organization of studies has replaced the old structure 1-4 or 1-5 (doctoral-doctoral) in universities. Dutch titles like meester (mr.), Doctorandus (drs.) And engineer (ir., Ing.) Still exist, alongside international titles of bachelor and master. A student can choose himself between the international title and his Dutch counterpart.

     A rapprochement between universities and hogescholen has taken place, and some institutions have even joined forces to shape their new agreement. Universities introduce courses alternately (university / business) and therefore engage in the direction of professionalization (duaal courses).

Research 

a) The different research organizations

Research in the public sector is supervised by two bodies: the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research (OC & W, Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschappen) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ, Economische Zaken). The Minister of Education, Culture and Science coordinates the research policy and sets the broad lines, but each minister is responsible for research in the specific area that falls within his remit.

 Public research is essentially structured around universities and non-university organizations. Among them :

- The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) is the central body that coordinates research policy in the Netherlands. Its purpose is to redistribute the funding it receives from various ministries (mainly the Ministry of the Economy and the Ministry of Education) to the various research institutes under its supervision. Its 15 research institutes represent a total of 4955 people, 60% of whom are in universities, 34.7% in institutes (2001 figures). Its total budget amounts to 388 million euros (2001).

- The research institutes of the Royal Academy of Sciences of the Netherlands (KNAW) have 6 institutes in the humanities and social sciences and 6 institutes in life sciences, for a 2001 staff of 1187 and a 2001 budget of 83, 7million euros. Academic staff represent just 40% of the total staff.

- The 23 institutes affiliated to the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) employ 5,100 people.

- The 12 institutes of the Agricultural Research Service (former DLO) of the Ministry of Agriculture which merged with the University of Agricultural Sciences of Wageningen (WUR).

- The 5 major technological centers (GTI): NLR (aeronautics and space), ECN (energy), WL Delft Hydraulics, GD Delft Geotechnics and MARIN.

        

    Since 2003, in order to promote the transfer of knowledge to industry, the Dutch government has set up innovation platforms (Innovatie platform) to promote cooperation between companies and research groups. These innovation centers (SYNTENS) are organized in a network (18 centers spread over the territory) provide advice to SMEs and put them in touch with the technological institutes.

b) Financing

Domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) represents 1.78% of the country's GDP for 2007 (provisional figure INSEE).

     Funding is 36.2% provided by the State. Most of it is financed by the private sector.

     Research institutes, which are usually part of a university, are funded either directly by the public authorities or indirectly through funds made available by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW) or the Dutch scientific research (NWO). They can also apply for funding from the private sector, either through teaching or research contracts.