<p>Damn i wrote a really long and nice post but now it’s gone. Damn. Well here is a short summary:</p>
<p>You are very right about the whole hogeschool thing. I went to the HVA with my school and I could attend a class for a day. I could choose out about 30 subjects, and 20 of them were things like : Business Intelligence Management, International Communications, Business Accountancy etc etc etc.</p>
<p>I believe most foreign people don’t really recognize Holland as an academic powerhouse. Considering that 70% (i verified and it is correct) of the kids here do VMBO that is understandable. Gymnasium and VWO and even Havo do provide Holland with a very talented, smart and driven white collar workforce.
The Universities in Holland are all very good i believe, TU Delft has a good Enginering Program, Erasmus has a great business school, UVA has a good Poli Sci(politicologie) dept., Rietveld College is a renown art institute, Utrecht has a good journalism dept. and Leiden has the best history dept. in the Benelux.
I believe Dutch schools don’t have enough funding, or just run their institutions in a way that less money is needed.
Also when you would ask most American college students if they would like to spend a semester in Holland, the UVA or the Erasmus College do not imediatly come to mind. I believe they come here to smoke pot, drink legally, visit the RLD and … oh yeah go to a museum or two. We of course thank them for this(big chunk of Dutch Tourism revenue!) but that is the stereotype Holland for them. I can’t blame them because i do not expect people to know all the finest Institutions of higher education of each country by heart, but it’s just a pitty because i believe Dutch Universities can offer alot, but so could any American College, from HYP to FSU you can get a great education.
On the other side of things I believe the Dutch people like and respect their Universities, but just don’t really spend alot of time thinking of them because there is almost no admissions process really. Mostly if you fit the requirements you are in(correct me if I am wrong).
Well i hope this might answer your question but i just came back from soccer practice and i am all wet and tired and had to summarize a big a s s thread so forgive me if I totally missed the point.</p>
<p>Btw: Keep the thread active, it’s really informative and cool for Dutch people… yes, all 3 or 4 of us lol.
Cheers</p>