Dutch open education office

Bangkok Post, By: PROF B JAMES JOHNSON, 17/03/2009 at 12:00 AM 

The Netherlands embassy in Bangkok and Nuffic Neso Thailand opened an office in Thailand on March 6 dedicated to serving Thai students who are interested in studying in Holland. The Nuffic Neso (Netherlands Education Support Offices) centre is the 10th such education support office opened worldwide, behind Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Taipei, and Vietnam. 

With scissors in hand and ready to cut the ceremonial ribbon at the official opening of the Nuffic Neso Thailand office are, from left, Assoc Prof Dr Piniti Ratananukul, deputy secretary general of the Commission on Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Thailand; Mr Sander van den Eijnden, president of Nuffic; the Netherlands’ Ambassador to Thailand, Mr Tjaco T. van den Hout; and Mr Erik Martijnse, deputy director, Directorate of Higher Education, the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture & Science. B. JAMES JOHNSON

Services 

Nuffic provides information on Dutch higher education, curricula, diplomas, titles and degrees. 

This information is often distributed through Neso, whose main tasks are the promotion of Dutch higher education and the enhancement of cooperation between higher education institutions in the Netherlands and institutions, in this case, in Thailand and the region. 

Neso will also channel information and provide support and liaison for the academic communities of the Netherlands and Thailand and will provide information about student visas. 

Erik Martijnse, deputy director, Directorate of Higher Education, Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture & Science and Student Finance, in delivering the keynote address, said: "The Neso offices are responsible for the generic promotion of Dutch higher education and for recruiting talented foreign students." 

He added that, "They also support initiatives for institutional collaboration between Dutch higher education institutions and international partners in students' own countries," concluding that, "In this way, they play a role in supporting both individual student and higher education institutions in both the Netherlands and Thailand." 

Mr Tjaco van den Hout, the Netherlands Ambassador to Thailand emphasized that it is the goal of Nuffic Neso to foster a "balanced exchange of Thai students who study in the Netherlands and Dutch students who come to study in Thailand". 

History of cooperation 

Erik Martijnse cited the 405-year commercial history between the Netherlands and Thailand (major Dutch companies operating today in Thailand are ABN-Amro, Heineken, Philips and Unilever) as another reason for the higher education institutions of the two countries to have a closer working relationship. 

At least five Thai universities have had a collaborative relationship since 1993 with the veterinary medicine faculty of Utrecht University, which is in the fourth largest city of the Netherlands. 

The Neso office has been in the making for several years, since the signing of a memorandum of understanding in 2007 and the trip by Thai education administrators to the Netherlands last December, which resulted in agreements on student loan systems and education cooperation between the countries. 

On the rise 

Soehirman Patmo, director of Neso Thailand said, "Education in the Netherlands is excellent and our universities are already very international in curriculum, scope and student population," with Martijnse adding that "the Netherlands has 14 research universities and 41 universities of applied sciences, which offer more than 1300 bachelor's and master's degree programmes - all with English as the medium of instruction." In conclusion, he said, "In 2008, about 160 Thai students were studying at Dutch institutions of higher learning, eight times more than in 2000!" 

For more information, visit http://www.nuffic.nl and http://www.nesothailand.org .