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Hbo Bachelor's programmes take four years (240 ECTS). Wo Bachelor's programmes take three years (180 ECTS). The minimum admissions requirement for an hbo Bachelor's programme is a diploma at Dutch mbo level 4 (senior secondary vocational education) or Dutch havo (higher general secondary education).
Upon completion of the pre-master, the HBO graduate is able to enroll in the target Masters program that the pre-master grants access to. However, an HBO bachelor graduate is able to directly enroll in a 'research' university Masters's degree abroad.
Higher professional education (HBO): Concrete, practical. Research university (WO): The emphasis is on learning to look analytically and critically at the way a certain field can be approached. Higher professional education (HBO): Higher professional education trains for a specific profession.
One the hardest things to explain in Dutch higher education is the difference between a traditional research university education (called WO in Dutch) and a ...
HBO bachelor is typically a 4 year degree. WO bachelor is typically a 3 year degree. If you want to do a WO master after a HBO bachelor, you typically can, provided that it's in the same field and you take an additional 'transfer' year to get you up to the same level as WO students.
I did an hbo bachelor and a wo master, in slightly different fields of study, therefore there could be other factors that explain the differences I experienced. But these are the things that stood out most to me: There is a lot more room for discussion in WO, during lecturers but also in exams and papers. WO requires a lot more reading.
HBO or Hogeschool institutes are focused on applied higher education and usually offer 4-year Bachelor programs geared more towards the practical labor market. The academic universities (WO) are the highest possible level of education in the Netherlands.
