Dutch universities

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Dutch Universities are supported by state funding (with the exception of University Nyenrode) so that universities do not have to rely on private funding to facilitate tuition. All citizens of the Netherlands who complete high school on the pre-academic level (VWO) or have the Dutch bachelor's degree HBO are eligible to attend university. Special programs exist to make it possible for college students to enter a university as well. Three universities (Leiden, Utrecht and Groningen) have restrictive requirements based on academic ability; and all universities have restrictive requirements for some of their programs because the number of prospective students sometimes outnumbers the number of available places.

Many Dutch students attend universities far from their parental homes (in contrast to Universities in Italy and Spain for example), although restricted accommodation often forces students to commute to university each day from their parents' house. As a compensation for this, Dutch students normally receive a card (OV-kaart) that allows them to use public transport for free during one part of the week and with a discount during the other part. Waiting lists for student accommodation in the Netherlands can be more than a year, particularly in Utrecht and Amsterdam.

Quality differences among Dutch universities are rather small and the best university in one program is often the worst in another. This is one of the reasons there are not many very highly-ranked Dutch universities in international rankings, but almost all are ranked in the second tier.

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