Amsterdam, Netherlands - SEO Economisch Onderzoek

4.4.2 HEIs as part of the regional education supply chainIn recent years the position of HEIs as part of an education supply chain is an issue that hasreceived heightened political attention. One weak aspect of the Dutch education system is theselection and increased sorting that goes on in primary and secondary schools, plus the difficultyof moving between streams (OECD, 2008a: 52). It can prove to be difficult for someone who issorted into a low track in high school to move between streams and complete tertiary education.According to the OECD (2008: 56) “The nation’s failure to increase the number of studentsprepared for tertiary education is a serious problem.” The Bachelor-Master system is intended tomitigate this problem. The research universities and UAS in Amsterdam increasingly recognizethemselves as part of a regional education supply chain and have set policies to smooth thetransition from secondary/vocational education to tertiary education and from UAS touniversities. The UvA and VU follow a proactive policy of maintaining close contact with highschools in the region. They aim to attract high school pupils by giving guest lectures and organizevarious activities for these pupils at their universities. Examples of these activities are guestlectures, master classes, visits to scientific labs and research projects where high school pupilsand scientists work together to solve a scientific problem or receive assistance from scientists inwriting papers. Unique to these kind of promotional activities is that UvA and VU join forces.Both universities operate from the principle that for high school pupils in the Amsterdammetropolitan region in first instance the question what to study is more important than at whichuniversity they should enroll. By working together UvA and VU can promote their educationalprogrammes more effectively. Only at the stage where pupils have to decide where to follow theprogramme of their choice they become competitors. In addition, the Bachelor-Master system hasstrongly improved the inflow of UAS students at these universities. The UvA and VU have set upso-called premaster programmes for UAS students, which prepare these students for the actualMaster programme. Moreover, the increasing cooperation between UAS and research universitieson a governance level (such as the common Governing Body of UvA and HvA) also furthersmoothens the transition from UAS to university. Currently the VU has the largest share of UASstudents’ inflow in Master programmes. Besides working together with the regional universities,HvA and INHolland have also formed a partnership with ROC’s to improve the inflow ofstudents from secondary and MBO vocational schools. INHolland has even set up an‘intermediary programme’ for students from MBO schools as part of which they can take coursesat INHolland on Fridays for the period of six months. If these courses are successfully passed,these students can get a waiver for up to one semester worth of courses when enrolled at thefollow-up programme at INHolland. The popularity of this programme has strongly increasedover the last years.4.4.3 Regional employmentUvA, VU and HvA use several mechanisms to create pathways between themselves and regionalfirms:• HEIs keep in contact with SMEs and public sector organizations through regionalinitiatives such as Kenniskring Amsterdam, www.kennispoortamsterdam.nl,Amsterdamse Innovatiemotor (AIM) and Life Science Fonds Amsterdam. Theseinitiatives have made cooperation between HEIs and the business sector easier and moretransparent;• Researchers at HEIs also have their own network and provide consultancy work;• HEIs cluster together with companies and other research institutions on business parkssuch as Science Park Amsterdam, Medical Business Park AMC, Life Sciences CenterAmsterdam and the Amsterdam BioMed Cluster (see § 3.5);• Technology transfer offices (TTOs) of UvA and VU improve communication with thebusiness sector;• UvA and VU provide accommodation and other facilities to spin-offs on their premises;• Internships and lectors (at HvA) improve knowledge transfer from HEIs to corporations;94