Netherlands

Work opportunities for those from outside the European Union are very restricted. Only when an employer can prove they've searched in the EU, they are allowed to hire a non-EU citizen. Official policy is to deter all non-EU immigration, unless there is an economic necessity.

Citizens of certain non-EU countries are permitted to work in The Netherlands without the need to obtain a visa or any further authorisation for the period of their 90 day visa-free stay - for more information see the 'Get in' section above.

Students from other European countries are eligible for study financing only when they have a fixed 32 hour/month work contract or when they have lived in the Netherlands for five years.

Since 2005, the Dutch law enables what they call “knowledge immigration” the idea is to allow local companies to “import” foreign employees to work in the Netherlands. The process is straightforward and takes between 4 to 10 weeks.

The Netherlands has many universities. The country has recently converted their own titles into the bachelor/master system.There are two types of universities:

Academic focussing more on theoretical knowledge, aka "Universiteit"

Applied Sciences focussing more on practical knowledge, aka "Hogeschool"

The Times Higher Education Supplement ranks 11 universities among the top 200 in the world.

English speaking students will have no problems finding suitable courses. A total of 1,456 courses are taught entirely in English.There is also the added advantage that most locals under the age of 30 are reasonably able in English.

For international students, several scholarships are available.They can be found on the Nuffic website (http://www.nuffic.nl/inte...). Here you will also find information regarding courses, institutions, housing, formalities, culture, traineeships and possible difficulties.

Events

events
Defqon.1

(http://defqon1.nl) - dance festival focussing on the harder dance styles, such as hardstyle and hardcore. residing in flevoland, usually in mid june, but in 2009 is held in mid september.

events
Lowlands

(http://www.lowlands.nl) popfestival - every last weekend of august at biddinghuizen, flevoland.

events
Queen's Day

koninginnedag is held every year at april 30th all over the country except if this day is a sunday, then it will be held at the saturday before. in every village and town, you will find frollicking dutch, free markets and authentic dutch games. nowadays queen´s day much more becomes a day of festivals and partys. it is advised to wear orange clothes, most dutch people walk around in their national colour. an advisable city to attend at this day is amsterdam, because it's one of the largest events of the year there. in several larger cities most notably the hague and utrecht, the festivities start in the evening of the 29th of april.

events
Pinkpop

(http://www.pinkpop.nl) is a three-day pop festival every year with pentecost "pinksteren" in landgraaf, limburg.

events
football crazy

Every two years, the country goes football crazy as either the European Championship or the World Cup is held. It's not uncommon for literally fifty percent of the population to be watching a game if it's a particularly important one. Often bigger cities will put up large tv screens for the general public, like on the Rembrandtplein in Amsterdam. Likewise, cafes and bars are another popular place to watch games.

events
Summercarnaval

(http://www.zomercarnaval....) - a big parade through the center of rotterdam. one of the biggest events in the netherlands.

events
Carnival

In the Southern Netherlands North Brabant, Limburg and to a smaller extent also in Twente, Overijssel and the south of Gelderland, the Catholic celebration of Carnival is held since medieval times. It occurs immediately before Lent; which is usually during February or March. Parades can be seen almost in any town on Sunday, sometimes also occurring on Monday. Parades can also be held in the evening, usually on Saturdays all the wagons are then lit up by numerous small lights. The other days of the week, many activities can be found ranging from street painting stoepkrijten to beer drinking contests. The cities of 's-Hertogenbosch, Breda and Maastricht are advisable for attending Carnival.

events
Northsea Jazz Festival

(http://www.northseajazz.nl) - big summer jazz festival, held in the ahoy stadion, rotterdam since 2006 as it moved there from the hague. around 1,800 jazz, blues, funk, soul, hip hop, latin and r&b acts play during this 3 day event.

events
Vierdaagsefeesten

(http://www.vierdaagsefees...) - summer festival in nijmegen lasting seven days, during the nijmeegse vierdaagse, which always starts on the 3rd tuesday in july. the celebrations though start already the weekend before and over 1 million people attend. during the festival, there is a section for all the top dutch bands such as moke and racoon, de affaire which is focussed on alternative and rock, the matrixx which has all your electronic dance music needs, and of course the numerous terraces and bars.

events
Dance Valley

(http://www.dancevalley.com) - the largest dance festival, with over 40,000 visitors. annually mid july in park spaarnwoude, near schiphol airport. the focus is on celebrating summer, and has circus tents in which every tent is a different genre in dance music.

events
Mystery Land

(http://mysteryland.id-t.com) - dance festival with a flower-power theme. in the last week of august near schiphol airport. most dance genres are present, including even electro. also has activities such as workshops and theatre, which are usually uncommon with dance festivals.

events
Heineken Dance Parade

(http://www.ffwdheinekenda...) - a big dance parade through rotterdam. much in the spirit of the popular love parade in germany.