Since 2018, the pre-bachelor at Tilburg University and the transfer programme at Boswell-Bèta have organised a joint intake for their refugee programmes. The admission requirements, intake tests and attainment levels of the base years have largely been harmonised. By sharing experiences and referring participants on, we give each student optimal education experience whilst minimising costs.

Boswell-Bèta is the former beta department at Utrecht University’s James Boswell Institute. For over thirty years, Boswell-Bèta has provided education in maths, physics, chemistry and biology. This education focuses on Dutch and international students who cannot automatically be given a place at the university, including refugee students who attend courses with UAF support. In 2016 Boswell-Bèta started organising a complete transition year for refugee students in partnership with language institutes.

For over 45 years, Tilburg University Language Centre has been providing language courses for highly qualified students, including courses in Dutch as a Second Language, focused on State Exam NT2, programme II. Since 2017 we have offered a pre-bachelor for refugee students, in which we not only focus on the core subjects of Dutch, English and Maths, but also work on study choice, study skills and academic skills. The programme also includes a short internship.