HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht

Faculty of Education seen from the A27 motorway, one of the many new buildings.

The HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (Hogeschool Utrecht, HU) is a vocational university in the city of Utrecht and one of the largest educational institutions in the Netherlands. It shares its main campus, the Uithof, with the largest university of the Netherlands, Utrecht University. It also has buildings in Amersfoort, 25 km from Utrecht.

Funded by the state, it has over 38,000 students with more than one hundred different nationalities.[1] It offers about 70 different degree courses (Bachelor and Master level) in a wide range of subjects: Communication and Journalism, Economics and Management, Science and Technology, Health care, Education and Social Professions. HU also participates in the Utrecht Summer School, which offers 130 short courses in July and August.

History

HU emerged in 1995 from a merger of a number of colleges.[2]

The Uithof by government measures then merged nationwide nearly 80 HBO institutions to around 45 new colleges. In 1995, the merger of University College Utrecht, and in 2005 the name was changed to HU.

HU combines more traditional areas of study such as the Department for Medical Education with newer ones such as Communication Media Design.

Accreditation

As of 2002, responsibility for accreditation lies with the Netherlands-Flemish Accreditation Organization (NVAO). All degree programmes offered by research universities and universities of applied sciences will be evaluated according to established criteria, and programmes that meet those criteria will be accredited. Only accredited programmes are eligible for government funding.[3]

The University of Applied Sciences Utrecht offers bachelor's (BA) and master's degrees (MA), but no doctorates.

Besides the accreditation of degree programmes, the Netherlands has a system by which the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science recognizes higher education institutions by conferring on them the status of either funded (bekostigd) or approved (aangewezen). Funded indicates that the institution is financed by the government. Approved indicates that the institution does not receive funds from the government and has to rely on its own sources of funding. All Bachelor programmes of HU University of Applied Sciences are funded.

Other higher education institutions in Utrecht

References

  1. ↑ http://international.hu.nl/Study%20Programmes/Study%20at%20HU.aspx
  2. ↑ http://www.hu.nl/OverDeHU/In%20het%20kort/Geschiedenis.aspx
  3. ↑ http://international.hu.nl/Study%20Programmes/Study%20at%20HU/The%20Dutch%20Education%20System%20and%20Accreditation.aspx

External links