Admission and Entry Requirements

The student must be admissible to Higher Education through a diploma with good results at least equivalent to the Dutch havo, vwo or mbo level 4 for our bachelor programmes and 4 years hbo for our master programmes. Does your diploma match with this requirements? Check here what the Nuffic has to say about the diploma you’ve obtained.

Select the relevant country and open the pdf file. At the ‘evaluation chart’ you’ll find an overview of the most common diplomas and their comparison in level to the Dutch educational system. This will give you a clue about your admission possibilities.

The other chapters of the pdf file contain more information about the curriculum of the specific education. Sometimes it depends on the curriculum of your previous studies if your diploma will meet the full described level, so this file from the Nuffic must only be used as a guideline; our Student Registration will determine the final admission.

Short degree programmes

If you want to apply for a short degree programme, the following entry requirements are also applicable:

• Having completed a minimum of three years of higher education in the discipline of further study. 
• Or a Bachelor Degree in a related field of study. 

The students’ qualifications will be assessed by the Admission Officer of the specific course on the basis of the provided diplomas, curriculum vitae, letter of motivation and, if necessary, an intake interview.

***Important notice: To meet the needs of students who are unable to take the TOEFL iBT^® test at a test center due to public health concerns, ETS is temporarily offering the TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition test in selected areas. The test is identical in content, format and on-screen experience to the TOEFL iBT test taken at a test center. It is taken on your own computer at home and is securely monitored by a human proctor online through ProctorU^®. For further information check here.

If you’ve applied for an English programme, you will have to fulfill the English language requirements.

• IELTS: we accept Academic IELTS certificates with a minimum Bandscore of 6.0.
• ***TOEFL: we accept TOEFL Internet Based certificates with a minimum score of 80 and TOEFL Paper Based certificates with a minimum score of 550.
• Cambridge language assessment: we accept Cambridge Language Assessment certificates with a minimum score of 169 – First, Advanced, Proficiency.
• Official statement English bachelor or master: if the medium of instruction of your bachelor or master studies was in English, please provide us with an official signed and stamped statement from your university in which they state that the medium of instruction of the entire curriculum was in English.
• Exemption based on previous education: In some cases, European students can be exempted from submitting an English proficiency test. Please check Nuffic's diploma list to see if you have to supply an official English language test.

Please note that we do not accept language tests/certificates older than 2 years.

IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC en Cambridge English grades & scale

IELTS	TOEFL Paper Based	TOEFL Internet Based	TOEIC**		Cambridge English Score*
			Listening and Reading	Speaking and Writing
5.0	500	60	600	240	154 - 161
5.5	525	70	620	260	162 - 168
6.0	550	80	670	290	169 - 175
6.5	575	90	720	310	176 - 184
7.0	600	100	780	350	185 - 190
7.5	625	113	790	400	191 - 199

* Cambridge English Score: check the conversion tool to convert your test scores to the Cambridge English Scale. 

** All parts, namely 'Speaking and Writing' ánd 'Listening and Reading', must meet the score requirements. 

Prospective preparatory students are required to indicate the desired follow up programme (bachelor, master) during the application for the preparatory course.  The reason for this is to establish whether they meet all other entry requirements for their intended future studies. 
 
Preparatory Year 
Prospective students must have an Academic IELTS certificate on which the scores should be at least 5.0 (meaning: the overall band score + the scores per item must be at least 5.0). 

Preparatory Semester 
Prospective students must have an Academic IELTS certificate on which the scores should be at least 5.5 (meaning: the overall band score + the scores per item must be at least 5.5).

Be aware: a physical language certificate is needed. We cannot exempt students from submitting an English language certificate based on an English medium of instruction statement.

Additional entry requirements for Preparatory courses:

• Students with a >2 year gap (Master students >3 year gap) between their previous education and their desired start date at Saxion are not admissible

• A skype interview is part of the admission procedure

Please note: If you have an English language certificate with a passing score (meaning: IELTS Academic overall band score of 6.0 or higher), you may not participate in the preparatory courses.

• Prospective students with a >3 year gap between their previous education and their desired start date at Saxion are not admissible.
• A skype interview can be part of the admission procedure.