THE HAGUE, 07/01/06 - In the school year 2004/5, more than 3.6 million pupils attended schools and colleges financed by the government, almost 1 percent more than the previous year. The number of higher vocational education (HBO) graduates increased, according to the Education Yearbook (Jaarboek Onderwijs) of the Central Bureau for Statistics, which was published on Friday.

In 2004/5, more than 543,000 students were registered in higher education (universities and HBOs), 4 percent more than during the previous academic year. During the past decade, the number of HBO students has risen steadily. After a drop in the 1990s, the number of university students has also increased every year since 1999/2000. More than half of the higher education students are women.

In 2003/4, more than 23,000 students passed a Masters or 'doctoraal' examination (details for 2004/5 were not yet available), an increase of 6 percent compared with the previous year. About 54 percent of these graduates were women. The average age of the graduates was 25.1. On average, they had been attending university for 5 years and 4 months.

In the HBO, the number of graduates from the primary phase or bachelor course rose by 3 percent to almost 60,000. The average age of the students on graduation was 23.4. For both university and HBO courses, women graduated at a younger age than men for almost all subjects. The average time taken to complete HBO courses was 4 years and 3 months.

In 2004, 65 percent of the Dutch population aged 15-64 had an educational level of MBO-2 or higher, compared with 58 percent in 1996. MBO-2 (Intermediate Vocational Education level 2) is considered the minimum level for prospects on the labour market. The proportion of the population who only attended primary school dropped from 14 to 9 percent between 1996 and 2004.