Celebrating 400 Years
of American-Dutch
Relations
Sander van den Eijnden
Director General of Nuffic, Netherlands
organization for international
cooperation in higher education.
Wednesday May 27, 2009
Nuffic – Linking Knowledge Worldwide
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Nuffic – Linking Knowledge Worldwide
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Size of workforce in the Netherlands
Size of workforce in the Nuffic-Neso’s
205
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Study in Holland promotion video
Study in Holland promotion video
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In the beginning
New Amsterdam
Suriname
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New Amsterdam today
Suriname today
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After the beginning
 First vice-president of the USA
 Second president of the USA
 First American ambassador in The Hague
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John Adams
“I wish to be informed concerning the constitution and
regulations of this university, the number of professors, their
characters, the government of the students, both in morals and
studies, their manner of learning, their priviledges &c. &c”.
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John Adams
“I am very much pleased with Holland. It is a singular country.
It is like no other. It is all the effect of industry and the work of art.
Their industry and economy ought to be examples to the world.”
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On their way to the promised land
Maasbridge, Rotterdam, 1873
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On their way to the promised land
Holland-Amerika Lijn (HAL)
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Holland-Amerika Lijn (HAL)
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Liberation by the Americans
Joe Eugene Mann (1922-1944)
Word War II Congressional Medal of Honor
Recipient.
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Liberation by the Americans
Margraten, American Military Cemetery
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The sixties
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Kralingen 1970: Holland’s Woodstock
The sixties: anti-war protest in Holland
Inspired by “the armies of the night” (Norman Mailer)
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The sixties: heroes of counter culture
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Complex images of America in the Netherlands today
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Dutch Higher Education
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Higher education in the Netherlands is accessible for
candidates with the right qualifications
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Graduation in the Netherlands
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Facts and figures in Dutch higher education*
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Population: 16.5 million
Students in higher education: 585.000 (2007-2008)
23.7% are 15-19 years old
21.3% are 20-24 years old
Foreign students: approximately 70.000 = 12% of the total students
50% female.
In 2007 16.6% of Dutch people aged 25-65 took a course; this figure
must increase to 20% by 2010
Government funding provided per student in higher education: approx. €
9,000.
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* Source: Statistics Netherlands (CBS), Jaarboek onderwijs in cijfers 2009
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Facts and figures in Dutch higher education*


The overall level of education of the Dutch population is on a steady rise.
In 2007 a total of 32% of the employed population had completed higher
education, representing a rise of seven percentage points compared to
ten years previous.
PhDs: the number of PhD graduates has seen a slow rise since the
1960s, from around 400 annually to over 3,000 annually today.
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* Source: Statistics Netherlands (CBS), Jaarboek onderwijs in cijfers 2009
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Foreign students in the Netherlands
Number of foreign students: 70,000*
 28,900 EFTA1 students enrolled
 17,350 non-EFTA students enrolled
 7,300 exchange students
 16,450 other inbound credit mobile students
* Source: Nuffic Key figures 2008
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Netherlands-U.S. Higher Educational Exchange:
400 Years of Projecting the Other
Michael Vande Berg, Ph.D.
Vice President, Academic Affairs
Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE)
NAFSA: Association of International Educators Conference
Los Angeles, CA
May 27, 2009
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“If you ain’t Dutch. . .
you ain’t much.”
My great-great grandparents Beerd VANDEN BERG
& Aaltje JUFFER (Doornspijk, Gelderland 1866)
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My Grandfather Bert VANDE BERG, b. 1883,
and Siblings (Newkirk, Iowa 1896)
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Great Grandparents Lammert VANDE BERG, Dena REXWINKLE
(Newkirk, Iowa c. 1903), & Children (Grandfather Bert is the
eldest)
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Celebrating St. Nicholas Day
(Chicago, Illinois/Arichat, Nova Scotia)
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Higher Education Exchange Data: 1924-2008*
Dutch to U.S.
1923-24
1930-31
1946-47
1953-54
1954-55
1966-67
1971-72
1991-92
1994-95
1998-99
2003-04
2007-08
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63
180
485
375
719
764
2100
1847
1839
1505
1680
U.S. to Netherlands
200*
151*
157*
587
711
1466
1686
2139 (06-07)
(*ranked between 12th and 15th as country destination for all U.S. students abroad)
(Bhandari, R. & Chow, P. (2008). Open Doors: Report on International Educational Exchange.
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New York: Institute of International Education.)
Three Enrollment Trends, Three Questions
• What might account for the strong & growing Dutch
interest in study in the US, 1923-24 through 1991-92?
• What might explain the Dutch student enrollment
downturn between 1992-93 and the present?
• What might explain the strong and (over the last 15
years) growing U.S. interest in study in the Netherlands
between 1954-55 and 2006-07?
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Responding to the Three Questions
• Reputation of potential host institutions
• Competition from institutions in other host
countries
• Financial Events
• Political Events
• Cultural/Historical Factors: (Stereotypical)
Images of the other
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A Tale of Two 16th & 17th Century World Powers:
The Dutch Republic and England
• Common Enemy: the Spanish & Portuguese Empires
Dutch war of independence (1568-1648)
English defeat of the Spanish Armada 1588
• Two seafaring nations: skillful seamen, explorers,
discoverers
• Competition for world trade
• Competing claims & military clashes over territory:
East Indies, West Indies, Manhattan
• Strikingly different cultural values: religious &
political
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Seventeenth-Century New Netherland (1626) & New
Amsterdam (1653): the Dutch Perspective on the Colony
• Dutch Republic (diplomatic recognition 1609): decades of religious war
with the Spanish had bred religious and political tolerance
 Union of Utrecht: “each person shall remain free, especially in his religion”
 Act of Abjuration (Dutch declaration of independence from Spain): people
have certain inherent rights that rulers cannot deny—including freedom to
revolt
• Religious wars had also bred diversity, freedom of ideas
 Leiden: published half of all the world’s books in 17th century
• Tolerance & diversity was good for business, at home and in New World:
hardworking & intelligent entrepreneurs
• Distaste for monarchy and ostentation: “strenuous spirit of
opposition to a sovereign concentrated in one head”
New Amsterdam: New World’s original cultural melting pot
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The Dutch Colony: The Perspective of the Neighbors
to the North (English Puritans)
Four Puritan colonies in New England: a 17th-century religious
monoculture:
 “The New Jerusalem”
The Puritans regarded Manhattan inhabitants as:
•
•
•
•
•
Impious, morally lax
Loose, boisterous: drinking, wenching, fighting
Politically & militarily inept
Duplicitous: do anything to make a guilder
Shockingly self-indulgent, morally defective
• Dangerous, mad, rebels against God’s & Man’s Law
 Freedom of worship: the “first born of all abominations”
 “Tis Satan’s policy to plead for an indefinite and boundless
toleration”
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Dutch and English Colonies: “the Extreme Liberal and
Conservative Wings of the 17th Century Social
Spectrum”*
19th and 20th Centuries: these two Competing Perspectives
evolve over time into two stereotypes in the U.S.:
Stereotype #1: The Self-Reliant, Tidy, Stouthearted,
Tradition-Loving—and Quaint—Dutch
(*I’m indebted to Shorto, R. (2004). The Island at the Center of the World. New York: Vintage
for much of the historical information in this presentation. I’m also grateful, for 19thcentury Dutch immigration history, to Lucas, H. (1989). Netherlanders in America: Dutch
Immigration to the United States and Canada, 1789-1950. William B. Eerdmans
Publishing: Grand Rapids, MI.)
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U.S. Nineteenth-Century Stereotypes of the Dutch
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Stereotype #2:
The Deceitful, Dangerous, Untrustworthy Dutch:
• 19th century: an historian says that the view that the Dutch made lasting
contributions to the US is ludicrous: “following the example of the petty
cheese-paring of the Batavian provinces, with their windmills, and barren
soil, fit only for fuel. . .”
• The Dutch are seen as tricky, dishonest: A 19th-century U.S. historian
calculates that the Dutch purchased Manhattan from the Indians for the
equivalent of $24 in —a sale that has ironically assumed mythic
proportions.
• Several derogatory terms based in negative stereotypes of the Dutch in
common usage: “Dutch treat,” “Dutch courage,” “Going Dutch,” a “Dutch
bargain”
• Pieter Stuyvesant’s surrender of New Amsterdam to the English (1664):
Dutch military ability and courage called into question (ironic, as
Manhattan changed hands five times during the next three decades)
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Stereotypes are in the Eye of the Beholder:
The American Founding Myth for a U.S. “beholder” whose personal
values are consistent with 17th-century Puritan cultural values:
 New England’s Puritan colonies, the “New Jerusalem,” offered
mankind a new beginning: the roots of U.S. Manifest Destiny
(Woodrow Wilson’s “light of the world,” Ronald Reagan’s
“shining city on the hill”), as well as a stern and narrow
moralism, and conservative religious and social views.
(Consider historical resistance, in the U.S., to civil liberties for
African-Americans, women, gays and lesbians; Biblical inerrancy
and Creationism; political and military unilateralism; and
waging war “on behalf of freedom-loving peoples around the
world.”)
Stereotypes that correspond to this cultural perspective:
 The Licentious, Riotous, Drunken, Tricky and Deceitful Dutch
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The American Founding Myth for a U.S. “Beholder”
whose own Values Recall 17th-century Dutch Values:
New Amsterdam, in promoting religious tolerance and liberty of
conscience, pointed the way to the U.S. Bill of Rights, Civil
Rights movement, support for immigration, multilateral
diplomacy (Obama’s inaugural: “We are a nation of Christians
and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are
shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end
of the earth. . . . As the world grows smaller, our common
humanity shall reveal itself; and . . . America must play its role
in ushering in a new world of peace.”)
Stereotypes that correspond to this perspective: The admirable,
hardworking, socially progressive, studious, neat, prosperous
and entrepreneurial Dutch.
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Current U.S. Stereotypes of the Dutch (evolution of 17th
century New Amsterdam values)
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Current U.S. Stereotype of the Dutch (Evolution of
17th-century New England Puritan Values)
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Two Types of Stereotypes Here:
The Puritan View: “The Dutch do a lot of drugs”
The Progressive/Liberal View: “Dutch men respect women more
than US men: they do half the housekeeping duties”
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Ambivalence: Dutch Stereotypes of U.S. Americans*
Health conscious
Friendly
Caring of children
Sincere religious beliefs
Self confident
Generous
Productive
Fun-loving and funny
Easy to communicate with
Fresh ideas
Innovative
Welcoming to strangers
Appreciative of home
Like to see new places
Fat and out of shape
Overly medicated & self-medicated
Overly spontaneous, enthusiastic
Fail to take care of the sick & old
More religious “than God or the Pope”
Arrogant
Materialistic
Over achievers
Loud, boisterous, “uncivilized”
Violent and tough
Superficial and shallow
Naive
Resistant to social change
Overly focused on brands
Bigger is better
Racial bigots
Objectionably patriotic
Exaggeratedly pro-American
(Thank you to Hannah Huber, CIEE Resident Director; Peter Theunissen, Education & Public Information Officer, Royal
Netherlands Embassy in Washington, DC; and Marcel Oomen, Executive Director of the Fulbright Center in
Amsterdam. Any distortions of their contributions are my own.)
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A Stereotype: The Ugly American
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Another Stereotype: The Generous, Innovative,
(Health Conscious), and Caring American
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Three Enrollment Trends, Three Questions
• What might account for the strong & growing Dutch
interest in study in the US, 1923-24 through 1991-92?
• What might explain the Dutch student enrollment
downturn between 1992-93 and the present?
• What might explain the strong and (over the last 15
years) growing U.S. interest in study in the Netherlands
between 1954-55 and 2006-07?
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