Postgraduate Education for Human Geography in The Netherlands: Some comparisons with the UK

Prompted by discussion in an Arena Symposium in JGHE, this paper compares postgraduate education for human geographers-particularly on doctoral programmes-in The Netherlands with that in the UK. It is clear that there are some similarities in the restructuring of postgraduate education which has occurred in the two countries. However, individual doctoral students in The Netherlands appear to have much better financial and contractual conditions than their UK counterparts. Using the example of The Netherlands Graduate School of Housing and Urban Research (NETHUR), research training programmes for postgraduate research students are discussed, and some of the issues associated with comparability of provision are raised.

Keywords:

• Postgraduate Education
• The Netherlands
• National Education Policies
• International Comparison