Almost as many first-years in HBO as last year
The universities of applied sciences attracted about the same number of first-year students as last year, the latest figures show. The two-year associate degrees are growing rapidly, but the four-year bachelor's programs are losing out.
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The number of freshmen in the associate degreetraining has increased by no less than 22 percent. The two-year higher professional education programs are primarily intended for MBO students and employees to make the step to higher professional education more accessible. They are becoming more and more famous and growing in popularity, although they are only a small part of the total.
The bachelor's programs saw the number of first-years fall slightly. There are now 127.377, which is 0,7 percent less than last year.
Nursing courses are growing rapidly (12 percent). 7.311 first-years started there. This is also because almost all programs have abolished their numerus fixus: more students were welcome.
Pabo
Earlier it was known that the teacher training college is catching up after the crash of 2015. In that year, the basic grant was scrapped and stricter admission requirements were introduced for the teacher training college, causing the number of first-years to drop dramatically.
While these courses are growing, others have to do with a decline in the intake. Other teacher training programs, for example, have a harder time. The enrollment in bachelor's programs in the education sector fell by 2,2 percent. Those 64 additional students in the associate degrees do not outweigh that.
Technique
Technology is also seeing the number of first-years drop by several hundred, despite the increased interest among associate degrees.
These are still not the final figures, however. They will only come in February, after all kinds of checks. More information will then also become available, for example about differences in prior education and the choices of boys and girls.
