Those, who have searched for education in the Netherlands probably have noticed that some universities have continuous description in their name, which is the mysterious “Applied Sciences”. What’s that and what’s the difference from normal one I’ll try to explain in this post.
Currently in the Netherlands there is a complicated model of education, which is quite hard for foreigners to get a grasp of. In short, they have two models of higher education so called HBO (Hoger beroepsonderwijs) equal to a higher professional education and WO (Universiteiten). I think the last one doesn’t need to be translated. If you’d be a Dutch citizen, your choice of middle schools would play a big role. But since this article’s aim is to help foreign people to choose, I’ll skip this.
In short, HBO is a practical university with a bit lower level than ordinary research university. BUT, do not hurry to draw conclusions based only on that. There are some advantages and disadvantages of both.
| UNIVERSITY | UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES |
| In Dutch it is university. | In Dutch it literally means Higher School which can disappoint someone who wants to get the best education possible. |
| Usually big and old universities. Have long history and traditions.
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Quite new educational institutes. Some are mergers between two or more schools.
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| Harder to get. There’s always a selection and limited number of spots. | Easier to get. Process is simple and requirements are not that high. No limitation. |
| University like in movies. Lectures in a big auditoriums (sometimes though, like in Groningen University, you have to study at the cinema simply because there is not enough space for all the students). | School like. Campuses are small, with not so many facilities to offer, lecture rooms are small and high school like. |
| More reading and analyzing. | More projects and group work, and a LOT OF WRITING |
| Less stress. If you plan wisely you can have free days. | A lot of stress. Personally, two years in my university were the most stressful years of my life. I’ve managed everything but the amount of deadlines and group work kills all the spare time you have even if you plan it. |
| Less supervision from professors. You can always ask question, but the emphasis is on self-discipline. | More supervision from the teachers. Couple of times before the deadline you need to show your report/project to the teacher for assessment. |
| 4-5 subjects per semester. Usually you study 4-5 subject for 2-3 months and then write exam, next period starts with new subjects. | 7+ subjects per semester. And sometimes you need to write exams for all of them. |
| Day is quite free. Couple of hours of studying and then spare time | Full lecture day. Starting from 8-15. Varies from day though and planning. Sometimes you can have only two lectures, but then next day full 8 hour day. |
| 3 years. | Usually 4 years, however recently I saw an exception in two UoAS where the program was 3 years. |
| Cases or real life examples are used for education. | Cases, real life examples are used. Companies often collaborate with practical universities asking them to help solve the problem. |
| Internship/Study abroad is optional and duration is around 2-4 months. However, partner universities and companies are usually better/bigger than in UoAS. | Internship and study abroad options are included in education. Expected duration is longer than in research universities. |
| More prestigious. Even though there are some arguments about that, in the Netherlands it is considered higher bachelor than bachelor from Applied Sciences. | Less prestigious. It’s good if you finish it, however because of many drop-outs and less strict selection criteria it is perceived as not as high level as university. |
| Next step is Master’s or work. | Next options are WO (university) if you want to complete all the educational steps or get different experience, Master’s possible to get though takes a bit longer than if you’d have studied in a research university, work. |
If you don’t plan to stay in the Netherlands after graduation it doesn’t really matter which university you will choose since in English they all sound equal. In Dutch though as I pointed out it can play a big role. At least for me it was, since I’m overambitious. Knowing that I started to study in Higher School kinda felt a bit disappointing. But I don’t regret anything. The thing is, both options are good. It’s just what you personally want from your education. If you prefer more work like and a real experience – then you should go for universities of applied sciences. If you prefer to individually plan your time and learn better from reading not stress then you should choose a university.
No matter what’s the choice it will be different from your home country style and you’ll have to adapt. But it’s worth it. Hope this helped and good luck! J
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