First-year university students

Refers to first-year students who have obtained a pre-university (vwo) certificate and are enrolled in a full-time university study programme.

The Association of Co-operating Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) also publishes data on graduation rates in university education, but uses a definition that varies from the definition used by Statistics Netherlands. As a result, the figures released by Statistics Netherlands are lower. The VSNU, together with the Ministry of Education, monitors the entire group of students who have re-enrolled after the first year. Statistics Netherlands does not make this distinction and monitors the group of students who have enrolled since the first study year.