Promoting Excellence in Dutch Higher Education

Talented students need to be challenged and encouraged to do their very best. This is being recognized more and more in the Netherlands. In addition to the importance for the students themselves, it is also particularly important to society at large because today’s students are the future. Our country will benefit if these talented people are challenged at an early stage to reach for even greater heights.

Traditionally, the Netherlands has a culture of egalitarianism in education. Various inspections and accreditation authorities guarantee that all educational institutions offer a good basic level, accessible to all students. Nonetheless, a relatively large number of students do not feel sufficiently inspired or challenged. A culture of inclusion prevails: while attempts are made to help less talented students keep pace with the basic curriculum, the facilities to encourage high-potential students to achieve excellence are insufficient. In recent years, a shift has taken place and the taboo of performing above average has been broken. Due to the emphasis on the knowledge economy, the importance of fostering and promoting talent is now being recognized. This cultural shift in the education sector deserves support, so that talented students may properly and genuinely do their best, showing willingness and motivation, and achieving excellent results accordingly.

The objective of the Sirius Program

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science established the Sirius Program in 2008 as an official initiative designed to address this issue. The Ministry has invited all higher education institutions (research universities as well as universities of applied sciences) to submit a plan for the promotion of excellence, either independently or in collaboration with other institutions. The largest portion of the Sirius budget has been earmarked for the Bachelor’s program that was launched in 2008 (€ 48.8 million). The Master’s program, with a budget of € 12.2 million, will start in the spring of 2010. These funds provide the first incentive aiming at inspiring the top 5% of the students to achieve excellence. The Sirius Program has a double focus. On the one hand on institutions’ goals, their vision for the whole institution and the performances they wish to achieve (including the feasibility of those performance targets). On the other hand on the learning function of the program as a whole. With these

points as the framework, Sirius aims to build up a community of participating and interested institutions oriented towards the gathering and sharing of knowledge. In this way, the institutions can learn both from themselves and from others.

Sirius: Main Features

The Sirius Program aims to respond to the needs of higher education, which is why it has been designed based on input meetings with board members of institutions and experts from the sector. The main features are:

Individual choices are key

Just like its student population, the Dutch higher education system is diverse and multi-faceted. The Sirius Program therefore gives research universities and universities of applied sciences the freedom to define the concepts of ‘excellence’ and ‘excellent student’ according to their own profile and vision. This freedom also applies to the manner in which students qualify for participation, and to the nature of the activities undertaken by the institution to encourage excellence. As a result, excellence is defined and promoted in a variety of ways in the Sirius Program.

Broad strategy

Experience with promoting excellence has already been gathered on a small scale in the Netherlands. However, the Sirius Program is actually intended to tackle the subject at institution level. This is the focus that institutions must take in their applications, which must also involve at least 5% of the student population.

Performance-oriented

The Sirius Program takes a performance-oriented approach: agreements are made individually with each institution regarding their intended achievements in the program. One of the most important criteria in assessing applications is the extent to which these achievements are a) new, and b) higher.

Competition

In consultation with the institutions, it was decided not to distribute the available budget equally among all higher education institutions; they compete for funding. Nor is there any subsidy limit per application: each institution must ensure 50% co-financing. The most important criterion is whether the budget is necessary to achieve the results stated.

High trust

The Sirius Program works according to the ‘high trust’ principle. The institution’s vision and desired achievements (including their feasibility) are the key points in the assessment of the application – the manner in which institutions intend to realize these achievements is up to them. The amount of bureaucracy involved in justification will therefore be limited. Annual monitoring will focus on progress towards realizing the performances, and the subsequent period of reflection will give the institution the opportunity ‘to look at itself in a mirror’. The Science and Technology Platform (Platform Bèta Techniek), which includes the ‘Sirius team’ implementing the program, has extensive experience with this approach. For the monitoring activities the team will also bring in an external group of experts to offer advice. This group is involved in the issuing of the subsidies as well.

Statutory room to experiment

Every pupil who has successfully passed his final exams in the right school type may enroll in Dutch universities. Therefore universities may not further select students for enrollment, and tuition fees are stipulated by the Ministry. Especially for the Sirius Program, room to experiment has been created in the form of broader statutory options for selecting students

(for both Bachelor’s and Master’s programs) and increases in tuition fees (for Master’s programs).

Learning program

Ultimately, the Sirius Program is intended to generate insight into successful innovation and other strategies for the enhancement of excellence in higher education. The identification of existing obstacles is an envisaged part of this process, making it very important to further encourage knowledge exchange regarding the promotion of excellence, based on the results of reflection. To this end, the Sirius team will organize opportunities for knowledge exchange, such as conferences, master classes and lectures. The program intends to bring those involved into contact with one another and place relevant issues in the spotlight. It is expected that not only the institutions involved in the program will learn, but also the entire sector and the national government as well.

Current situation

Two assessment procedures have already taken place. The Minister has adopted the Sirius recommendations and decided to honor 16 of the original 37 Bachelor’s applications. Five institutions commenced implementation in the fall of 2008, and the rest in 2009. The approved applications vary in their choice of excellence – each has a specific approach, depending on the type of institution. Research universities, universities of technology, teacher-training colleges for primary education, arts academies and broad-based universities of applied sciences are all represented.

Participating institutions are listed below. Click on the names to read the information leaflets.

If you wish to read more about the Dutch higher education sector in general, please visit Nuffic's website, the Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education.

Amsterdam School of the Arts
Driestar Educatief Teacher-Training University Gouda
Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen 
Hogeschool Edith Stein OCT University of professional teacher education Hengelo
INHolland University of Applied Sciences
Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences
Utrecht University of Applied Sciences
NHL University of Applied Sciences Leeuwarden
Radboud University Nijmegen
University of Groningen
Technical University Delft
Leiden University
Maastricht University
Tilburg University
Utrecht University
University of Amsterdam/VU University