Requirements 2024-2025

You have been awarded a havo or vwo diploma with the required subject cluster and can demonstrate that you have passed your school-leaving examination in the subjects listed below:

If you have been awarded a havo or vwo diploma with a subject cluster offered at secondary school level until 1 August 2007, your subject cluster is out of date. An easy way to find out whether your subject cluster is out of date is to check whether your cluster contains numbered subjects, such as Economie 1, Economie 2, Wiskunde A1 or Wiskunde A2.

A havo or vwo subject cluster that is out of date does not give you direct access to higher education. Your diploma will be assessed on the basis of the current havo and vwo subject cluster requirements for the programme of your choice. As a result, your diploma may not meet the entry requirements and you will be deemed ‘inadmissible’ to the programme of your choice. In order to be admitted, you will need to sit a deficiency test before you can be enrolled as a student.

If you have not taken the subjects listed above, you must sit a Saxion deficiency test prior to the start of the programme. In order to be admitted, you must pass one of the exams listed below:

At Saxion, all students with a recognised MBO level 4 diploma are welcome. This means that the course and the associated diploma must be recognised by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

More about switching from mbo to hbo

You have been awarded a Dutch preliminary study diploma which has been judged to be at least equal to a vwo, havo or mbo (level 4) diploma, or you have been awarded a Dutch certificate to demonstrate that you have passed the first-year or final examination of a higher education programme (hbo or university). See also ‘Redressing deficiencies for other diplomas’.

You have been awarded a non-Dutch diploma which has been judged to be at least equal to a vwo, havo or mbo diploma.

Even if you are admissible on the basis of another Dutch diploma, you should bear in mind that you must still meet the subject cluster requirements. If you do not meet these requirements, you must sit a deficiency test prior to the start of the programme and pass one of the exams listed below:

• exam Wiskunde A or exam Wiskunde B

If you do not meet one of the requirements listed above and you will have reached the age of 21 by 1 September 2023, you can sit a 21+ exam prior to the start of the programme. You will be admitted to the programme if you pass all of the parts of the 21+ exam listed below:

• English exam
• aptitude test
• exam Wiskunde A or exam Wiskunde B

The entry requirements which are assessed by means of the deficiency test and the 21+ exam are laid down in a separate brochure.

If you have been awarded a non-Dutch diploma which has been judged to be at least equal to a vwo, havo or mbo diploma and you are an EU/EEA student, you must demonstrate that your command of the English language meets at least the havo school-leaving examination standard.

If you are not an EU/EEA student, you must show an IELTS 6.0 or TOEFL 550 certificate to demonstrate a sufficient command of the English language.