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annual overview 2010

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content editorial 1 general 3 development cooperation 9 mobility and internationalisation 15 transparency and information 23 promotion and neso programme 35 people and organisation 43 colophon text photography design published by nuffic hans hordijk erik jansen nadiafotografeert.nl marijn willemse making waves the hague nuffic

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editorial 1

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a year with major milestones over the past few years nuffic has made efforts across a broad spectrum of areas to further professionalise its internal operations these efforts were rewarded in 2010 with iso quality management certification the nuffic premises have also been given a contemporary look and feel thanks to a major overhaul of the interior of the building it now offers more meeting space as well as space for independent and project-based work financial management has also undergone further professionalisation this has helped to ensure that nuffic had no financial deficits in 2010 in 2010 nuffic entered into a management agreement with the ministry of education culture and sciences for the 2012­2015 period the annual contract with the ministry of foreign affairs regarding the implementation of the niche and nfp programmes was also extended once again in 2011 nuffic will start work on a new multi-year activity plan for the period 2012 and onwards there are ample opportunities to further develop the quality of the organisation support for this is strong as revealed by and commitment in the workplace remain high nuffic therefore looks forward to the future with confidence nuffic looks back on 2010 as a year marked by successful and varied activities in terms of both content and finances anyone who views the information in this annual overview in the context of nuffic s 2008­ 2011 activities plan will immediately note that major milestones have been achieved a great deal of progress was made in the further digitalisation of the scholarship management system this has reduced the administrative burden on nuffic while the improved digital application and selection procedure has made the entire system more customer friendly the initial experience gained has given us confidence that we are on the right track the netherlands education support office neso programme also entered a new phase the key aim is to broaden content and the strategies for achieving this include placing additional focus on market research and collaborating closely with the higher education institutions in the netherlands this development signifies a more adequate response to changing preferences and requirements within higher education in are active nuffic is by no means the only institution involved in the orientation enrolment and reception of foreign students a chain of actors have been involved in this process for a number of years now including not only institutions but also organisations such as studiekeuze123 duo the education executive agency and the ind the immigration and naturalisation service the year 2010 witnessed the emergence of a broad administrative support base for improving value chain management the ministry of education culture and science has awarded a grant for this purpose and the programme will be implemented in 2011 under the name `rode loper red carpet the netherlands and in the regions in which nuffic nesos a staff survey conducted in 2010 the level of ambition i would like to thank all staff for their excellent work and our partners ­ the ministries the higher education institutions and the umbrella organisations ­ for their successful cooperation sander van den eijnden director-general the hague april 2011 2

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general 3

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jozias van aartsen mayor of the hague reopens nuffic building the afternoon of thursday 16 september saw the reopening of the nuffic building at kortenaerkade 11 in the hague by the mayor of the hague jozias van aartsen the mayor officially opened the building by unveiling magnificent stained-glass windows by the hague-based artist pieter hofman which were reinstated in the building following an absence of more than a quarter of a century nuffic commissioned a major overhaul and restoration of the premises in 2010 the kortenaerkade is dominated by monumental office blocks that once housed ptt post s board of management the then government architect d.e.c knuttel designed the buildings which the ptt moved into in 1920 and 1923 hofman completed his stained-glass windows depicting various activities of ptt post in 1958 when the government moved ptt post s board of management to groningen it collaborated with the council of the hague to find a new designation for these two listed buildings following substantial renovation ownership of the smaller of the two buildings ­ kortenaerkade 11 ­ was transferred to nuffic in 1993 the other building ­ kortenaerkade 12 ­ has since housed the international institute of social studies iss of erasmus university rotterdam at that time hofman s stained-glass windows were transferred to the netherlands institute for cultural heritage icn part of the ministry of education culture and science which is dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage nuffic has enjoyed close links with the hague since its new realism in 2010 dordrecht-based construction company p.g.n groenendijk revamped the interior of the building at kortenaerkade 11 architectural firms stijn van den boogaard and filip mens in the hague created a design that demonstrates tremendous respect for the ideas of formation in 1952 the royal family gave nuffic the use of a section of noordeinde palace as office space when queen beatrix decided to turn the `oude hof into her working palace nuffic relocated to the former premises of hotel de wittebrug on the badhuisweg nuffic has been located on the kortenaerkade since 1993 even the modernised office furniture is reminiscent of the new realism style that became popular around 1920 pieter hofman s windows blend in perfectly with this atmosphere this prompted the icn to provide nuffic with the windows on loan so that they could be restored to their full glory rotterdam glass restorer henk van kooij meticulously and lovingly restored the works of art government architect knuttel back in the 1920s the high ceilings and large office spaces which disappeared in 1993 have now returned 4

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changing of the guard in board of trustees 2010 saw two personnel changes in the board of trustees the chairperson trude maas-de brouwer reached the end of her term ceding her position to successor jan veldhuis however trude maas-de brouwer will continue to chair the huygens programme a duty she took on in 2010 jan bout chairperson of the audit committee also stepped down as a member of the board of trustees he was succeeded by leendert klaassen trude maasde brouwer and jan bout both have a background in the corporate sector trude maas-de brouwer trude maas-de brouwer serves on the supervisory boards of companies such as philips electronics nederland and the schiphol group of which she is chairperson and vice-chairperson respectively she also serves in a supervisory capacity at various non-profit and the van gogh museum she has a great passion for internationalisation education and science for example she chaired the permanent committee for science policy and higher education during her time as a member of the senate of the dutch parliament jan bout and trude maas-de brouwer helped strengthen the board of trustees with their insights from the corporate sector and their drive their input has been of great significance to the development of jan bout prior to his retirement on 1 january 2011 jan bout served as chairperson of the board of directors at royal haskoning jan bout s secondary activities also reflect a great passion for internationalisation and education in addition to his work for nuffic bout served as a member of the board at the working group on economic reconstruction in afghanistan he is also a member of the `talent to the top taskforce the advisory boards of the dutch delta academy and donders institute the executive boards at tno built environment and geosciences and the ubbo emmius fonds and the supervisory board of deltares organisations such as the bernard van leer foundation nuffic 5

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jan veldhuis succeeds trude maas as chairperson of the board of trustees on 12 june 2010 jan g.f veldhuis 1938 succeeded trude maas-de board of trustees trude maas stepped down after having served the maximum term of office allowed under the articles of association mr veldhuis has been a member of nuffic s board of trustees since 2004 after completing his studies in utrecht and the united states scholarship ­ veldhuis started his career at the ministry of foreign affairs in 1968 where he worked at the directorate-general of european cooperation in the period from 1970 to 1974 he served in various positions at leiden university between 1974 and 1979 he served as deputy secretary-general at the ministry of education and science where he also served as director-general of education and inspection from 1979 to 1986 as a part of his ministerial duties veldhuis also served as inspectorgeneral of education from 1986 until his retirement in 2003 jan veldhuis served as chairperson of the board at utrecht university he has held many additional posts including the chair of the fulbright committee the fondation descartes and the netherlands association for international affairs ngiz jan veldhuis currently also holds various posts in the area of education science culture and healthcare at organisations such as the qanu quality assurance netherlands universities stichting carmel college the diakonessen hospitals in utrecht-zeist-doorn the niod institute for war holocaust and genocide studies and the roosevelt study center brouwer as chairperson of the nuffic ­ on the basis of a fulbright 6

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nuffic gains iso certification on 29 april 2010 the entire nuffic organisation gained iso certification certification was previously limited to specific organisational units in order to comply with iso standards an organisation must describe all its primary work and operational processes this also helps create complete transparency in the area of quality control and improvement the certification process certiked also formulated a number of nuffic s strengths such as its intensive focus on customer satisfaction the organisation s constant monitoring of activities and high management efforts an increasing number of nuffic s clients are demanding iso certification review standards were also highlighted as key strengths nuffic will be audited on an annual basis which will include a reassessment of the organisation certiked performed its work processes nuffic and ministry sign management agreement on monday 20 september nuffic and the ministry of education culture and science signed a management agreement for the 2012­2015 period the agreement is set to take effect upon the expiry of the current covenant on 31 december 2011 the management agreement comprises various multiyear agreements most of which concern nuffic s performance the ministry provides nuffic with an annual grant based on the activities plan submitted by nuffic the management agreement also includes agreements on government compensation for wages prices and exchange rate fluctuations if the grant should be reduced the ministry will provide a one-off reimbursement 7

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nuffic and european platform cooperation instead of merger the planned merger between nuffic and the european platform specialised in the internationalisation of primary and secondary education has been deferred until further notice this is the outcome of an extensive exploratory study completed in 2010 the merger of the two organisations proved to be too ambitious under the current circumstances however the study did identify ample potential for close cooperation in day-to-day practice nuffic and the european platform complement each other in various areas a special nuffic-european platform cooperation agenda was set up in order to facilitate further collaboration the agenda will be implemented by a working group made up of both nuffic and european platform staff 8

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development cooperation 9

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ministry makes cutbacks on niche and nfp programmes the dutch government headed by mark rutte has not spared development cooperation in its cutback policy at the end of 2010 state secretary ben knapen of the ministry of foreign affairs introduced a commitment freeze for the nuffic-administered netherlands initiative for capacity development in higher education niche the same applied to the netherlands fellowship programmes nfp the commitment freeze means that nuffic is no longer and nfp programmes the freeze was introduced in preparation for the cuts in 2011 a sum of 34 million euros has ultimately been cut from the 2011 budget for these programmes which nuffic administers on behalf of the ministry of foreign affairs ongoing projects and published grant tenders will not be affected at the time the commitment freeze was announced niche projects were being carried out in 23 partner countries a suitable partner was sought in the netherlands for 48 projects via a grant tender procedure precursor to niche the niche programme was launched as recently as 2008 in 2010 there were therefore still 117 ongoing projects as part of the precursor to niche the netherlands programme for institutional strengthening of post-secondary education and training capacity npt the npt projects were carried out in fourteen countries particularly in sub-saharan africa thirtyseven projects came to an end the last npt projects are not scheduled for completion until 2012 niche despite varying widely in terms of content and discipline niche projects all aim to sustainably increase capacity for higher level education in developing countries most projects involve higher education institutions on both sides namely in the netherlands and in the developing country examples of project content include the development or further development of the curriculum for a master s degree programme in the field of water management or supporting the development of a school incubator authorised to make financial commitments for the niche for people starting up their own business with a business state secretary ben knapen of the ministry of foreign affairs 10

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more than 2,000 nfp scholarships awarded in 2010 853 netherlands fellowship programmes nfp scholarship students were awarded a scholarship for a master s degree programme the number of scholarship students who came to the netherlands for a short course was 1,329 and 65 nfp scholarships were awarded to phd students a total of 28 refresher courses were organised in several countries scholarship applications from 61 developing countries were granted nfp scholarship students are people who have a number of years work experience their employers must approve the nfp course as they are required to continue to pay the scholarship student s salary while he or she is studying under an nfp scholarship this is a significant investment particularly as the scholarship student does not work during the study programme which takes place in the netherlands employers are prepared to take part in the programme because the nfp scholarships help them to professionalise their companies satisfied students the students themselves have also been shown to be satisfied with the education they received more than 2,000 nfp alumni will return to their country of origin this year after completing a master s degree short course phd course or one of the tailor-made programmes in the netherlands does this mean that there will be the same number of ambassadors for the netherlands in the netherlands in 2009 nuffic conducted a tracer study in which more than 1,300 nfp alumni from 57 nfp countries took part as many as 77.8 of the respondents stated that they were able to apply the knowledge and skills they acquired to their work in practice the responses frequently included mention of positive dutch characteristics such as openness friendliness and helpfulness the professionalism and relevance of the study programmes were also cited by many alumni the large number of survey respondents would seem to justify the conclusion that this image of the netherlands is being dispersed across the globe in 61 countries around the world this question is difficult to answer but the tracer study conducted among nfp alumni would seem to confirm this view 11

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ifp nearing completion on behalf of the ford foundation nuffic seeks to find suitable study locations in europe ­ with the exception of the united kingdom ­ for scholarship students of the international fellowships programme ifp these students are often the first members of their families and social environment to follow a higher education programme the selection procedure focuses on the aspect of leadership capacity scholarship students are then free to choose a study programme and foreign destination are assisted by nuffic who works to find a suitable study place over the course of 2010 nuffic assisted 59 scholarship students in this manner this represents a slight rise in comparison with 2009 when a total of 53 were successfully placed of the 59 students placed in 2010 11 were from africa 16 from asia and 32 from latin america in 2009 the ford foundation published an interesting the ifp originally established in 2001 is set to terminate its activities in 2013 by that time the programme will have cost the ford foundation a total of 355 million euros the board aims to stop there and shift its focus to other needs at the time of writing download the entire book in pdf format 4.98 mb compilation of articles on these issues origins journeys and returns social justice in international higher education sharing experiences those involved in the ifp are currently sharing their experiences with other scholarship donor organisations the main focus is on selecting suitable candidates and providing support to students once they have started their study programmes how do you select genuine measure engagement how do you define `deprived are additional english language skills the most effective way of helping scholarship students in their new and unfamiliar environment or should the focus be on social or computer skills should the students families abroad be provided with financial assistance the programme has yielded a total of 2,031 graduates from asia africa russia and latin america a mere two per cent of all scholarship students failed to obtain a degree of their choice students who decide to study in europe leaders in a deprived environment how do you 12

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seminar aimed at improving donor coordination in day-to-day practice on 23 and 24 september nuffic and its norwegian sister organisation siu held a joint seminar in the hague the event was themed around `the benefits of donor coordination in education and research development programmes participants included for many years most recently in the paris declaration and accra agenda all too often however such recommendations are not implemented in practice in order to address this issue 2011 participating organisations pledged to further elaborate specific sub-themes key issues include how should we deal with key global themes such as gender issues or the labour market what is the most effective way of achieving efficient programme coordination what is the most effective way of learning from each other s experiences what are the latest trends in development cooperation organisations from austria denmark participants at the joint nuffic and flanders wallonia germany ireland siu seminar decided to establish the netherlands and catalonia donor coordination or harmonisation is hardly a new phenomenon in the world of development cooperation it has been recommended in a large number of key policy documents a platform to help organisations in the area of education research and development cooperation exchange their experiences the participants also drew up an agenda for further consultation starting at the followup seminar to be held in norway in 13

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