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Dutch Student Grants Good for Study Abroad: A New National Policy in the Netherlands to Promote the Worldwide Mobility of Dutch Higher Education Students |
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By Hanneke Teekens
The Dutch government offers financial assistance in the form of grants and loans to all Dutch higher education students. This program is publicly funded and administered by the IB-Groep on behalf of the Dutch government.
As of September 2007, Dutch students may use the government’s educational grants and loans to fund studies in another country. The IB-Groep will be responsible for all first-line contacts with students, including information provision, answering questions and queries, and dealing with complaints or objections. To assure quality and academic level, the government appointed Nuffic, the Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education, to assess the foreign program of study. In order for students to finance courses abroad with government funds, the overseas program must be deemed comparable to a program of study offered in the Netherlands.
Dutch students using government loans and grants to study abroad are subject to the same terms as students using the funds to study in the Netherlands. Thus, the length of time a student studying abroad is eligible for Dutch government grants and loans depends on the duration of the comparable course of study in the Netherlands, not the length of the program overseas. This means three years for an ‘academic’ (WO) bachelor’s program plus the nominal duration of a corresponding master’s program, or four years for a professional (HBO) bachelor’s program.
Given that 17,000 Dutch students already study abroad, Nuffic anticipants a high demand for assessments and has prepared lists of pre-approved institutions and study programs for popular study abroad destinations (Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States) to expedite the authorization process. The lists have been published on the IB-Groep’s website. Students who enroll in a program included on the lists will be awarded study finance immediately, without having to wait for Nuffic’s assessment. The listed programs should account for a large percentage of the total applications in 2007.
Because government loans and grants can now be used for study in any country in the world, including countries that do not meet the Bologna criteria, Nuffic will not always be able to verify whether the quality assurance (QA) or accreditation system in a given country meets Dutch standards. Where this is the case, Nuffic will use the accreditation system with in the particular country as a guide, in addition to the following criteria:
• Quality: Will rely on the QA system in the country.
• Academic level: In terms of associate, bachelor and master degrees, the assessment evaluates whether the program is comparable to the equivalent Dutch degrees. This is done using the methodology described in the Lisbon recognition convention.
• Binary system: If possible, the assessment will indicate whether the program is an academic-oriented program (WO) or a professionally-oriented program (HBO). If it is not possible to judge, the program will simply be regarded as higher education.
A final assessment will take place on completion of the program to determine actual performance and the graduate’s professional title. This will include an evaluation of the actual program as studied, in accordance with the criteria of the Lisbon recognition convention. As the lists of approved programs increase and become more thorough, the demand for final assessments will decrease.
The degree to which Dutch students will make use of the new facility is still uncertain, particularly because students will follow an entire program rather than embarking on a short exchange. It will be interesting to see whether Bologna has succeeded in increasing the appeal of study in Europe and whether students will choose to study long term in emerging countries, such as China. In addition to promoting student mobility, the Dutch government hopes the ability to use state funding abroad will strengthen university relations with institutions overseas.
Hanneke Teekens is Communications Director at the Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education (Nuffic).
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