ABSTRACT
The academic landscape of the Netherlands is divided into two types of universities: research universities and universities of applied sciences (UAS). The universities of applied sciences outnumber the research universities by 37 to 14. They host almost twice as many students as research universities, 446,500 versus 250,000. Both universities offer bachelor and master programmes. Universities of applied sciences provide higher professional education, preparing students for specific professions. The programmes offered tend to be more practice-oriented than programmes offered by research universities. Since 1986, research has been a designated task of universities of applied sciences (Knoers, 1995), but it has only grown into a serious activity since 2001, when the first professors were officially installed. Research can be conducted in collaboration with research universities, but this is not compulsory. If a research results in a PhD thesis, however, collaboration with a research university professor is obligatory. Professors at universities of applied sciences are not assigned with the ius promovendi, the legal position to award the degree of PhD.
