Since 2010, 48 hbo college and university courses have been criticised for not being up to scratch by the higher education accreditation agency NVAO, Trouw reports on Friday.

Of them, 38 courses were offered by public institutions and 10 by private bodies, such as correspondence schools, Trouw says.

The problems included poor final year theses, poor marking standards and students who did not know how to carry out research, the paper said.

Courses which come under fire are given one or two years to improve. Eleven, including the much-criticised journalism training scheme at the Windesheim college in Zwolle, are now up to standard, the paper said. None have yet been closed down.