1.
Wim Kok
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Willem Wim Kok is a retired Dutch trade union leader and politician of the Labour Party. He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 August 1994 until 22 July 2002, Willem Kok was born on 29 September 1938, in Bergambacht in the Netherlands Province of South Holland, the son of Willem Kok a carpenter and Neeltje de Jager. He has one younger brother born in 1945, in 1982, the NVV merged with Nederlands Katholiek Vakverbond, the Catholic trade union, to form the Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging, of which he served as chair until 1986. Then he left the union to enter politics, Kok was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives on 3 June 1986, after the Dutch general election of 1986. For the Dutch general election of 1994, Kok again as top candidate lost twelve seats and it was considered groundbreaking in Dutch politics this was the first Cabinet of the Netherlands since 1908 without a Christian democratic party. The main aim of the Cabinet Kok I was to create employment, the Dutch economy had been in a deep recession for years. The market was allowed more influence in the economy and this let to a policy of tax reduction, economizing, and trying to keep people out of the social care by supporting employment, large infrastructural projects were set in motion. Another aim was to make an end to the debt of the Dutch government. The Treaty of Amsterdam was signed during this cabinet, the Srebrenica massacre occurred under the responsibility of this government, which eventually would lead to the fall of the second Kok cabinet. Until today, this was the last Dutch cabinet in recent history to serve a full term, the second cabinet was the successor of the first cabinet was formed from the same coalition of PvdA, VVD and D66. It was also known as the second purple cabinet called such because it contained both the social-democratic PvdA and the liberal VVD. The aim of the cabinet was to continue the policy of cabinet Kok I, which was concerned with economizing, tax reduction, Wim Kok was the prime minister, Annemarie Jorritsma as the deputy prime minister for the VVD, and Els Borst for D66. The cabinet had both left-wing and right-wing political parties as a part of it, there was no strong opposition in the House of Representatives. This did not mean that Kok did not face any problems, in May 1999, D66 stepped out of the coalition when proposed legislation on referenda, entered by this party, was blocked, through negotiations the crisis was solved and the cabinet stayed together. Moreover, allegations of abuse were made against Minister of the Interior. On 13 March 2000 Peper resigned as minister, according to himself to no longer bring problems to the public government, on the other hand, during Koks second term is known for legalizing same-sex marriage and euthanasia. On 15 December 2001 Kok announced he would retire from politics after the elections of May 2002. He stood down as Leader of the Labour Party that same day, unfortunately, Melkert did not appeal to the voter
2.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
3.
Democrats 66
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Democrats 66 is a social-liberal and progressive political party in the Netherlands. D66 was formed in 1966 by a group of politically unaligned young intellectuals, the partys main objective was to democratise the political system, it proposed to create an American-style presidential system. In the 1967 general election, the party won 7 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, the electoral history of the party is characterised by large fluctuations. At one point they had 24 seats, currently they have 19, the party was in government from 1973 to 1977,1981 to 1982,1994 to 2002 and 2003 to 2006. Over time the party began to other issues in addition to democratic reform. In addition to its nineteen seats in the House of Representatives, it holds ten in the Senate, the party leader and Parliamentary leader is Alexander Pechtold. The party has a number of elected local and provincial politicians and supplies a relatively large proportion of mayors. The partys voters are concentrated in cities, especially among people who hold a university degree. The organisation of D66 is based on principles of direct democracy, important decisions are made per referendum. D66 is a member of the Liberal International and the Alliance of Liberals, Democrats 66 was founded on 14 October 1966 by 44 people. Its founders were described as homines novi, although 25 of the 44 had previously been members of a political party, the initiators were Hans van Mierlo, a journalist for the Algemeen Handelsblad and Hans Gruijters, a municipal councillor in Amsterdam. Van Mierlo became the political leader and Gruijters the partys chair. The foundation of the party was preceded by the Appeal 1966 on October 10, the party renounced the 19th-century political ideologies, which dominated the political system and wanted to end pillarisation. It called for democratisation of the Dutch society and its political system. The party entered in the 1967 general election with Hans van Mierlo as their top candidate, the party won an unprecedented seven seats in parliament. In the 1971 general election the party won an additional four seats and it formed a Shadow Cabinet with the Labour Party, in the 1972 general election, the three parties formed a political alliance called the Progressive Accord and presented a common electoral program. In the elections D66 lost nearly half its seats, leaving only six, the alliance became the largest political force in the country, but it did not gain a majority. After long cabinet formation talks the three PAK-parties formed an extra-parliamentary cabinet joined by members of the Protestant Anti Revolutionary Party
4.
University of Groningen
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The University of Groningen is a public research university in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1614 and is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands as well as one of its largest, since its inception more than 200,000 students have graduated. It is a member of the distinguished international Coimbra Group of European universities, in April 2013, according to the results of the International Student Barometer, the University of Groningen, for the third time in a row, has been voted the best university of the Netherlands. In 2014 the university celebrated its 400th anniversary, the University of Groningen has ten faculties, nine graduate schools,27 research centres and institutes, and more than 175 degree programmes. There were four faculties – Theology, Law, Medicine, the coat of arms of the university was confirmed by the States of the City and County of Groningen in 1615. It consists of the arms, charged with an open book inscribed with the abbreviated words VER/BVM/DNI LV/CER/NA. The shield is surmounted by a crown of five leaves. The first 75 years of its existence were very fruitful for the University with about 100 students enrolling every year, on average two to three hundred students were registered with the University at any one time during this period. Opportunities and threats followed on each other’s heels during the nineteenth century, in 1815, at the same time as Leiden and Utrecht, the University gained recognition as a national college of higher education, but this was followed by discussions about closure. The situation improved markedly when a new university building, the Academiegebouw, was constructed in 1850. This made the fire completely destroyed this building in 1906 even more poignant. In the meantime, the Higher Education Act of 1876 had radically improved the position of the University, teaching now took place in Dutch as well as in Latin and the University was given a research as well as an educational duty. This laid the foundations for the present research university, the University of Groningen developed apace during the first decades of the twentieth century. The number of faculties and courses grew steadily while the number of students showed an explosive growth, when the University celebrated its first 300 years in 1914 there were 611 registered students, this had already grown to 1000 by 1924. After a drop back during the Depression, and in particular during the Second World War, in 2016 the Dutch chemist Ben Feringa, who worked most of his career at the university, won the Nobel prize for his work on molecular motors. Other strong research groups are in, Nanoscience, Physics, Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Medical Sciences, Neurosciences, Sociology, Philosophy, Theology, Archaeology and Arts. Every year more than 5,000 research publications go to print, the University of Groningen is a member of the so-called Excellence Group of the best universities in Europe. The Excellence Group has 56 members, which is 1.3 percent of the approximately 4,500 European institutions of higher education, the University of Groningen belongs to the top 100 large comprehensive research universities in the world
5.
Erasmus University Rotterdam
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Erasmus University Rotterdam is a public university located in Rotterdam, Netherlands, the city that also houses the largest port in Europe. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th-century humanist, the university has seven faculties and focuses on four areas. In 2013, Erasmus University Rotterdam was ranked top ten business schools in Europe by Financial Times. In 2015, Erasmus University Rotterdam is ranked by Times Higher Education as 20th in Europe and 72nd in the world, with its social sciences as 40th, and clinical health as 35th in the world. Erasmus University concentrates on issues of management, organisation and policy in the public and private sectors on the one hand, as well as on the field of sickness, Erasmus University Rotterdam has existed in its present form since 1973. Its history, however, dates back to 1913, the year in which the Netherlands School of Commerce was founded through private initiative with broad support from the Rotterdam business community. The statutory recognition of higher education in commerce and economics as an academic discipline resulted in 1939 in a change of name, the NHH became the NEH or Netherlands School of Economics. The growing complexity of society led in the 1960s to the arrival of the faculties of Law and Social Sciences, followed in later decades by Philosophy, History and Arts, and Business Administration. Together with the Sophia Childrens Hospital and the Daniel den Hoed Clinic, it forms the University Hospital Rotterdam, Erasmus University Rotterdam has bundled its education and research in four areas. This domain includes the Erasmus MC, the Institute of Health Policy and Management, Erasmus MC is the new name for the university medical centre in Rotterdam, which is a merger of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the University Hospital Rotterdam. The biomedical cluster plays a role in the field of genomics and bioinformatics. The Forensic Molecular Biology department works together with the Netherlands Forensic Institute, major long-term genetic epidemiological studies among the elderly and children are Erasmus Rotterdam Health for the Elderly and Generation R respectively. The institute of Health Policy and Management forms a bridge between medicine and the sciences on the one hand and social sciences on the other. The institute for Medical Technology Assessment conducts health economic research in collaboration with both the Erasmus MC and the institute of Health Policy and Management and this area includes the Erasmus School of Economics and the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. Its economics programmes and management programmes attract students and postgraduates from all over the world, the research schools Erasmus Institute for Management and the Tinbergen Institute attract PhD students, research fellows, PostDocs and visiting professors of repute from all corners of the world. The research focuses on the organisation of business and society and this area has ground in common not only with economics and management, but also with medicine and health sciences. As one of four concentrations of Erasmus University, culture is defined broadly with focus on the areas of media, cultural economics, primary research is on society and the arts, including cultural policy, media, and social identity in modern society. Faculty has particular strengths in research, and the students tend to graduate with strong research skills for academic and field placement
6.
Doctor of Philosophy
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A Doctor of Philosophy is a type of doctoral degree awarded by universities in many countries. Ph. D. s are awarded for a range of programs in the sciences, engineering. The Ph. D. is a degree in many fields. The completion of a Ph. D. is often a requirement for employment as a university professor, researcher, individuals with an earned doctorate can use the title of Doctor with their name and use the post-nominal letters Ph. D. The requirements to earn a Ph. D. degree vary considerably according to the country, institution, a person who attains a doctorate of philosophy is automatically awarded the academic title of doctor. A student attaining this level may be granted a Candidate of Philosophy degree at some institutions. A Ph. D. candidate must submit a project, thesis or dissertation often consisting of a body of academic research. In many countries, a candidate must defend this work before a panel of examiners appointed by the university. Universities award other types of doctorates besides the Ph. D. such as the Doctor of Musical Arts, a degree for music performers and the Doctor of Education, in 2016, ELIA launched The Florence Principles on the Doctorate in the Arts. The Florence Principles have been endorsed are supported also by AEC, CILECT, CUMULUS, the degree is abbreviated PhD, from the Latin Philosophiae Doctor, pronounced as three separate letters. In the universities of Medieval Europe, study was organized in four faculties, the faculty of arts. All of these faculties awarded intermediate degrees and final degrees, the doctorates in the higher faculties were quite different from the current Ph. D. degree in that they were awarded for advanced scholarship, not original research. No dissertation or original work was required, only lengthy residency requirements, besides these degrees, there was the licentiate. According to Keith Allan Noble, the first doctoral degree was awarded in medieval Paris around 1150, the doctorate of philosophy developed in Germany as the terminal Teachers credential in the 17th century. Typically, upon completion, the candidate undergoes an oral examination, always public, starting in 2016, in Ukraine Doctor of Philosophy is the highest education level and the first science degree. PhD is awarded in recognition of a contribution to scientific knowledge. A PhD degree is a prerequisite for heading a university department in Ukraine, upon completion of a PhD, a PhD holder can elect to continue his studies and get a post-doctoral degree called Doctor of Sciences, which is the second and the highest science degree in Ukraine. Scandinavian countries were among the early adopters of a known as a doctorate of philosophy
