Never before so many HBO students
The intake into higher professional education has grown by 2018 percent to a record high in this academic year 2019-3,4: 110.307 first-years enrolled. The total number of HBO graduates has never been so high: in October there were 456.633.
Image: NHL / Stenden Hogeschool
The number of first-year students in associate degree programs again grew significantly: by more than 30 percent. MBO students in particular are increasingly finding their way to the two-year courses. The total number of associate degree students has doubled in four years. The Association of Universities of Applied Sciences is also pleased with the increasing influx of part-time programs, which have been languishing for a long time.
Pabo's
The recovery at teacher training colleges is also not bad: 10,2 percent more first-years than in 2017. Not a single higher professional education program grew faster this year. Also striking is the increasing number of over-30s taking part-time training.
10,2 percent more first-years than 2017 registered for a PABO training
In the healthcare sector, another 'shortage sector', the number of first-years grew by 6,1 percent, partly thanks to the start of a number of new master's programs. Maurice Limmen, chairman of the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences, expects that the growth will continue now that almost all nursing courses have decided to let go of the numerus fixus.
Major colleges
Of the large universities of applied sciences, the intake at Avans grew the fastest: by 11 percent. In absolute numbers, nearly two thousand more first-years chose Fontys (+ 5,4 percent). It now has more freshmen (12.190) than Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (11.883), which saw its intake shrink by almost seven percent.
The AUAS is still the largest university of applied sciences in the Netherlands with a total of 44.993 enrolled students, closely followed by Fontys (43.650) and at some distance by the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (38.680).
