List of universities in the Netherlands


A listing of universities in the Kingdom of the Netherlands:

Research universities

Research universities in the Netherlands are institutions of tertiary education that in Dutch are called universiteit. Their focus is towards academic education and scientific research. They are accredited to confer bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. Prior to the Bologna Process, the universities granted drs., mr. and ir. degrees, which are equivalent to current MBA, MA, LLM or MSc degrees. The term universiteit is reserved to doctorate granting institutes in the Dutch context, and the additional qualifier "research" is hardly ever used in practice. There are public Universities and Private Universities in Netherlands.
† 2003-2004; ‡ 2004-2005; # 2005-2006; * 2006-2007; ##including research staff at the associated institutes. All figures without signs are estimates or from undated sources. According to Dutch law, it is illegal to use protected titles which can only be given by universities that are accredited. Protected titles are ing. bc. mr. ir. drs. and dr. English variants are not protected by Dutch law. One may bear in the Netherlands foreign titles according to the laws of the country wherein they were granted, but without translating them in Dutch.

Universities of applied sciences

in the Netherlands are focused on professional education rather than scientific research. While the literal translation of hogeschool is "high school", these are second tier institutes of higher education, and can be compared with colleges, polytechnics, and vocational universities in other countries.
They are accredited to confer bachelor's and master's degrees. Prior to the Bologna Process, they also conferred professional engineer's degrees. Dutch universities of applied sciences are not accredited to confer doctoral degrees; PhD studies can sometimes be conducted in the context of a university of applied sciences, however, the title will be granted by one of the research universities, and a full professor of that university will be appointed as principal supervisor.
In international contexts, the phrase University of Applied Sciences is used for the majority of these schools, as suggested by the Dutch Minister of Education. Some specific exceptions have been made. For example, tertiary art schools and schools of education use an internationally recognisable name of choice.
The Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences include the following:
Although there are none of these schools in the mainland, many exist in the Dutch Caribbean either in the special municipalities of the Netherlands or constituents countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Only one is located in Amsterdam the Amsterdam International University which mostly offer courses via distance learning and online, while there are few classes that held on campus when a course needs physical attendance and in particular only one has direct accreditation from Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders which accredits universities in the Netherlands and Flanders.
A number of private universities of applied sciences are active in the Netherlands. Some of these are exclusively distance learning medium learning providers.
Webster University Leiden is a university outside the Dutch system, offering Bachelor and Master programs in the Netherlands. Webster University is a private, non-profit American university, accredited in the United States by the Higher Learning Commission's North Central Association. The International Business and Management program, as well as the Applied Behavioral and Social Sciences program are accredited in the Netherlands by the NVAO at the hbo level.

International rankings

In relation to their population size, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands are the three countries with the highest number of universities among the 100 best of the Academic Ranking of World Universities.
Below are shown the international rankings of the Netherlands universities, and the number of times they rank in the top 200 of one of the six major global rankings:
UniversityQS World
THE World
USNWR World
ARWU World
CWTS Leiden
CWUR World
#a
Utrecht University120=75=55497273
University of Amsterdam6462=40101-15079107
University of Groningen1147396659691
Leiden University11867=898213592
Erasmus University Rotterdam18369746812198
VU University Amsterdam219=13882101-150114146
Wageningen University and Research1255979151-200210183
Radboud University217=128=104101-150125144
Delft University of Technology5067=173151-200198236
Maastricht University239=127196201-300243242
Eindhoven University of Technology102186=338301-400385317
University of Twente186=201–250369401-500427389
Tilburg University371=201–250472501-600891617
Open UniversityN.A.N.A.N.A.N.A.N.A.N.A.
University of CuraçaoN.A.N.A.N.A.N.A.N.A.N.A.

Notes:

N.A.: Not Applicable

a Number of times the university is ranked within the top 200 of one of the six global rankings.

b The university is ranked within the top 150 of all six global rankings.

c The university is ranked within the top 100 of all six global rankings.