Educational system
There are two types of higher education institution in The Netherlands: universities and so-called "hogescholen" (HBO, Universities of Applied Sciences). Hogescholen prepare students for specific professions at Bachelor level and tend to be more practically oriented than universities, where the focus is on theory and the generation of knowledge through research.
Most first year students in both types of higher education are recent secondary school graduates.
Surf the extensive website of Nuffic for more information, documents, articles, glossaries, legislation and other topics concerning studying in the Netherlands.
Nuffic stands for Netherlands organization for international cooperation in higher education.