The number of young people signing up for higher education at HBO colleges is set to reach a record 400,000 this year, reports Saturday’s Volkskrant.

This is an 18% increase on 2008, according to the HBO council chairman Doekle Terpstra in the Volkskrant.
The paper says that the number of new university students is also expected to be higher than last year.
One of the reasons for the increase in students could be the economic crisis which is making it hard for young people to get jobs, the paper says.