Flexibility in higher professional education:: A survey in business administration programmes in the Netherlands

In order to develop higher education in the European Union there is a need to increase the mobility of students and teachers. Improving the flexibility of educational programming is an educational policy in the Netherlands to support this development. To get a clear picture of the operational characteristics of current educational programmes, their flexibility and conditions for improvement, a survey was carried out in Business administration programmes in higher professional education institutes in the Netherlands. The results indicate that these educational programmes are organised in rather rigid operational formats that seem to restrict flexibility. The issue of developing new operational models that allow for more flexible educational programme formats is discussed. Operations management and educational technology are considered as potential domains for a re-engineering of educational systems.