Recognition of universities

02 Jul 2008

Not all of the educational institutions in the Netherlands are entitled to award officially recognized degrees and legally protected titles.

In brief, institutions fall into one of three categories.

Government-funded institutions are entitled to award officially recognized degrees and legally protected titles to graduates of their accredited programmes. To obtain government funding, institutions must satisfy a number of quality requirements. The list of all government-funded institutions can be found in CROHO.
Government-approved institutions are not funded by the government, but they do have the right to award officially recognized degrees and legally protected titles to graduates of their accredited programmes. Government approval is official recognition that the quality of a private educational institution has been inspected and approved. The list of all government-approved institutions can be found in CROHO (in Dutch).
Private institutions that have not applied for government funding or approval. The fact that an institution is not government-funded or government-approved does not mean that the quality they provide is below par. However, only if a programme is registered in CROHO or accredited by the NVAO can it be said to be officially recognized. Institutions without government funding or approval may apply for NVAO accreditation, but only for their post-experience master’s programmes. They cannot offer bachelor’s programmes for accreditation.