Dutch Education
Dutch education has been made compulsory for children between the ages of 4 to 16 and is still highly encouraged for young adults in the Netherlands between 16 and 18 years old. Primary education starts around the age of 4 in the Netherlands and continues until the age of 12, which is grade 8. Beyond which, based on an aptitude test, parents and teacher recommendations, the student can make a choice between 3 tracks of secondary education. The "VMBO: track grants students in Netherlands 4 grades of education that focus the students into leaerning a particular set of skills for a more specific trade.
The other 2 tracks that a secondary student in the Netherlands may take are the "HAVO" and "VWO" tracks where students continue their education in 5 or 6 grades which prepare them for further education in tertiary/university level education.
Universities in the Netherlands offer Bachlor degrees (approximartly 3 years to complete), Masters degrees (1-3 years to complete) and Doctoral degrees (4 years to complete). It is common that students in doctoral programs are also temporarily employeed by the university in various roles.
Dutch universities in the Netherlands commonly offer programs at bachelor, masters and doctoral level degrees that are taught only in English or a mixture of English and dutch. Despite this, the most common degrees in dutch universities remain taught fully in the dutch language.
For students who wish to apply for undergraduate degrees taught in public universities in the Netherlands, all students have to register and apply through the centralized dutch university application website "Studielink" (https://app.studielink.nl), from this website students can track their application process to different universities in the Netherlands.
Dutch universities often grade on a 5-10 point scale. Where 10 (A) is considered excellent and 5.5 (D-E) is considered sufficient and is the minimum passing grade, anything below 5.5 is considered a fail.
Full time students from the European Union often pay around 1900 Euros per academic year, part time students pay approximately 1500 Euros per academic year. Non-European Union students however can pay between 5000 Euros to 25,000 Euros per academic year. Please ensure you check with each university and its programs specifically for exact prices. |
