On 9 December 2011, the Dutch Ministry for Education, Culture and Science (OCW) and the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) drew up a general agreement. This accord identified the areas in which performance agreements for Dutch universities will be made for the period 2012 to 2015 and the measures the Ministry will take to facilitate these aims. The performance agreements should lead to numerous improvements, such as:

• higher rates of study success
• better quality of education
• improved profiling and differentiation in education
• a sharper research profile
• more effective utilisation of research results with respect to the top sectors (areas where the Netherlands is economically strong) and the Human Capital Agenda.

The universities were required to submit their proposals for the performance agreements to the OCW by 5 May. The Ministry will subsequently have these proposals evaluated by a review committee.

Together with the other Dutch universities and universities of applied sciences, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) has recently drawn up a university profile and developed a proposal for performance agreements. The different components (education, research and valorisation) were discussed in multiple sessions with various parties including deans and representative advisory bodies. The UvA’s proposal lays special emphasis on intensifying the existing cooperation with the VU University Amsterdam. The proposal was sent in draft form to the review committee on 4 May 2012.

The UvA will discuss its draft profile and draft performance agreements with the review committee in the week beginning 14 May. Following this discussion, amendments to the documents can be proposed by both the UvA and the review committee.