The following proposal investigates the reasons for the unprecedented rise of “liberal arts (and sciences)” education programs at Dutch universities over the last two decades.

There are currently 15 European countries that run more than 35 independent, post-1989 institutions subscribing to the idea of liberal arts (European Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences; van der Wende 2011; Godwin 2015a; Gillespie 2001). Since the opening of University College Utrecht in 1998, the Netherlands witnessed a successful proliferation with now seven university colleges, two liberal arts programmes and at least two planned new institutions.

In the first part, I will reconstruct the overarching vision behind the introduction of liberal arts in form of university colleges. The model, nicknamed a “Dutch mix” (Adriaansens 2014; University College Deans Network 2014), is based on a “liberal arts” interdisciplinary and general undergraduate curriculum present in many American liberal arts colleges, but scaled down to the Oxbridge size and focusing on Bildung-like research-based pedagogy. I will investigate its predecessors, promoters, development and current diversity of curricular offerings and organization, as well as coordination, challenges and plausible future development.

In the second part, I will try to provide an explanation of why this particular model was the only example of European liberal education to reach national prominence – all but one traditional public university now encompasses a liberal arts unit - and international visibility. Three types of factors are being examined:

1. The context of Dutch higher education before the introduction of the first liberal education, with its unprecedented internationalization, the existence of „general” curricula and its early-adopter status of the Bologna Process, but also serious structural issues (high dropout rates, low-achievers culture) (Boer and Goedegebuure 2001; van der Wende and Reumer 2010)
2. Personal traits of the individuals introducing curricular innovation, most notably Hans Adriaansens, both in terms of their exposure to the US system and leadership skills (Tak and Oomen 2012; Eckel and Kezar 2011; Bolman and Gallos 2011; Wren, Riggio, and Genovese 2009)
3. The prestige game between the Dutch research universities that currently consider English-taught, internationalized undergraduate programs a much needed addition to their disciplinary offerings –considered from governance and knowledge policy perspective (Erkkilä 2014; Lewis and Rupp 2015; Olsen 2007; Fumasoli, Gornitzka, and Maassen 2014; Altbach 2011).

In summary, I will offer the predictions in further development of the university college movement and its plausible international proliferation, both as a curricular and institutional model, and as a major actor at the European liberal education scene.

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