The Dutch Cabinet today approved the bill submitted by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Loek Hermans, for the introduction of the Bachelor’s/Master’s degree structure in higher education in the Netherlands. The proposed legislation will allow Dutch universities and institutes of higher professional education to switch to the new system as of the 2002 academic year. Expectations are that the majority of university programmes will in fact make the switch immediately. Mr Hermans has now submitted the bill to Parliament.

At their meeting in Bologna in the summer of 1999, the European ministers of education agreed that they would work towards a system of higher education consisting of two cycles (undergraduate and graduate), with the first cycle lasting at least three years. The new Bachelor’s/Master’s degree structure is the result. Its primary aim is to improve the international recognition of programmes and to make it easier to compare degrees.

Universities
Staring in 2002, university students will take a broad Bachelor’s programme lasting at least three years or counting for 126 credit points. They will then be able to enter one of a number of Master’s programmes. All these programmes will be subject to the payment of a tuition fee set by law. Universities will be able to dispense with the present preliminary examination (taken at the end of a student’s first year). Universities will also be allowed to subject students to a selection process for special Master’s programmes. For these programmes, which will have extra facilities and will be of a higher standard, universities will be permitted to charge up to five times the statutory tuition fee. If a student is unable to pay, the university will be obliged to look for ways for the student to finance his or her studies so that he or she can in fact enter the programme.

The special Master’s programmes will give an extra impetus to the development of programmes for exceptionally talented students. This will be an important factor in reinforcing the international position of Dutch universities.

Higher professional education
Students at institutes of higher professional education will in future graduate with a Bachelor’s degree. These institutes will also be able to develop accredited Master’s degree programmes, but these will not receive government funding. Graduates holding a Bachelor’s degree from these institutes will in general enter employment immediately after they graduate (more frequently than university Bachelors).

Titles
Students who have completed a university programme or a programme at an institute of higher professional education will be able to choose whether to use a Dutch title (such as meester (mr.), doctorandus (drs.), engineer (ir., ing.) or an international one (Bachelor or Master). The present Dutch titles will continue to exist. Institutions will be permitted to decide on the full title for themselves (for example Bachelor of Arts/Science or Master of Arts/Science). The accreditation body which will be reviewing university and higher professional education programmes from 2002, will check whether this is being done in the proper manner. The new system also means that students who complete a postgraduate Master’s programme will be able to use the title of Master.

Duration of programmes
The basic principle of the new system is that the current duration of programmes will continue to apply. If it is found necessary for certain Master’s programmes to take more than one year (for example because of quality considerations), Mr Hermans’ proposals mean that universities and institutes of higher professional education will have until 2005 to demonstrate that this is in fact necessary.

Accreditation
The accreditation of programmes is a precondition for the introduction of the Bachelor’s/Master’s degree structure. The accreditation body will determine whether programmes are of a standard appropriate for a university or an institute of higher professional education.

Student grants
The need to internationalise education and to make it more flexible has already led to changes in the system of student grants. Students are now required to gain a degree within ten years of commencing their studies. The age limit for a grant has been raised to 30. The introduction of the Bachelor’s/Master’s degree structure will also bring with it other changes in the student finance system. Students will be able to choose whether to convert their performance-based grant into a gift immediately after they have received their Bachelor’s degree –meaning that they decide to waive any further right to funding and to get a job– or to wait and do this at the end of their Master’s programme. Mr Hermans’ proposals will also allow students to use any remaining grant entitlement for the new, accredited postgraduate programmes. From 1 January 2003 onwards, the university funding system will be amended so that not only Master’s degrees but also Bachelor’s degrees will count when determining how much an institution will receive.

In order to help finance the introduction of the new Bachelor’s/Master’s degree structure, Dutch universities will receive a one-off grant of NLG 100m (NLG 50m in 2001 and NLG 50m in 2002). These funds are provided for in the government’s interim budget report.