Under the annual theme Strong together in Training (Samen Sterk in Opleiden), the MVO Leerhuis made significant strides in quality promotion in 2025. A governance code providing a common basis for more intensive regional collaboration was adopted midway through the year. A new working method where staff advisers and DB-COC members periodically discuss the progress of training programmes and implement targeted interventions in pairs was also introduced. The internal organisation has also been made even more professional. Financial transparency has been improved through the use of internal budgets and a visual dashboard that sets out clearly finances, course programmes and training courses, which are discussed periodically. Three support staff members have moved up to a coordinator role, giving staff advisers more scope to provide direct support to workplace trainers and registrars. Lastly, three training days that helped to strengthen the learning community and the links between registrars were organised.

The Amsterdam UMC Doctoral School is responsible for providing around 3,400 PhD candidates at the UvA and VU faculties of medicine with advice, support, training and policy. In recent years, this number has remained stable. In 2025, 472 PhDs were awarded (288 at UvA and 184 at VU).

The PhD contract guidelines and the harmonised policy on authority to supervise PhD candidates were adopted in 2025. Attention was also devoted to raising awareness of differences between types of PhD candidates and to the Alert, Intervention and Action Plan.

In addition, work started on developing supplementary policies, including mandatory training for supervisors, policies for external PhD candidates, monitoring moments, improvements to course organisation and improving the onboarding process.

Amsterdam UMC IDEA is one of the pillars within Education and Training and includes the Amstel Academy, Amsterdam UMC Academy, the Specialist Medical Advanced Programme (MVO) Leerhuis and the Doctoral School. A single director manages Amsterdam UMC IDEA.

Over the past year, work has been carried out to make the operational management of Amsterdam UMC Academy more professional. Examples include the development of an annual cycle in collaboration with O&O staff advisers and nursing directors, the aim being to improvement alignment between supply and demand. Towards the end of the year, the five sub-teams were merged to form two larger teams, which should lead to greater synergy between the different domains within the Academy.

Palliative Care Education
Amsterdam UMC Academy is the coordinator of two ambitions national programmes aimed at

improving quality of life and treatment in the area of palliative care through the development and

optimisation of palliative care education for all existing and future healthcare providers.

The Optimising Palliative Care Education programme (O²PZ) subsidised by ZonMw that has been running since 2019 was successfully completed in 2025.

The ‘Palliative Care Training’ programme has been running since 2022 and received an additional grant from the Queen Wilhelmina Fund (KWF), bringing the total grant to €2.4 million. The aim is to train large numbers of healthcare professionals and lecturers in the area of palliative care. Six different training courses were offered in 2025, with a total of 312 lecturers and 2345 healthcare professionals receiving training. A decision was made in 2025 to extend the programme, meaning that the training courses can continue to be offered in 2026. The aim is to train at least 3,000 existing and prospective healthcare professionals.

Internationalisation: further training and refresher training in the Caribbean
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, around 1,500 nurses and care staff have received training and further training in acute care as part of the Caribbean Health Academy (CARIBHA) programme from Amstel Academy and Amsterdam UMC Academy, in collaboration with hospitals in the Caribbean. The programme took place on Bonaire, St. Eustatius, Saba, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, and was funded by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. The CARIBHA project concluded in 2025. The last nine students began the third year of their training as assistant anaesthetists in 2025.

Amsterdam UMC is working closely with Fundashon Mariadal (FM), the hospital on Bonaire. That collaboration was incorporated into the Jumelage Foundation in 2012. Its aims include making staff more professional, broadening the range of their deployment and equipping them well in a growing organisation. As part of the collaboration, Amstel Academy and Amsterdam UMC Academy provide a wide range of further training and refresher training for FM staff in 2025. Lastly, 2025 again saw the provision of many advanced nursing training courses refresher courses at the request of the Caribbean hospitals. Amsterdam UMC Academy, acting with FM and at the request of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, also performed a palliative care knowledge synthesis on the BES islands in 2025. The findings of that process prompted the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport to make additional funding available in 2026 for palliative care training for healthcare professionals in the BES islands.

Educational innovation programme

Advanced nursing programmes and programmes for medical support staff are being more flexibly organised at national level on the basis of EPAs (Entrustable Professional Activities). The same reorganisation has also been implemented at Amsterdam UMC. The Care Programmes Board (CZO) began rewriting the EPAs in mid-2025 and they were submitted to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport in January 2026. Further agreements on implementation will then follow.

EPA education is being developed further, and made more flexible and innovative. The digitisation team was set up in 2024 to digitise the basic knowledge for each EPA. Staff from all parts of our organisation have been trained in the required skills. The digitisation of all or part of the education is an ongoing process and remains a high priority.

Work is also being carried out on a structural basis to improve further and expand simulation-based education, which is seeing ever more frequent use and being deployed to a higher standard in all programmes. Improving assessment is also a primary concern, the aim being to provide students with more and better-quality feedback.

Making quality assurance more professional

Quality assurance for the Amstel Academy’s programmes was made even more professional in 2025 in order to meet the new requirements of the CZO, which sets frameworks for and monitors the quality of healthcare programmes.

Providing practical training

Alongside the provision of healthcare, training is a high priority at Amsterdam UMC. The importance of practical learning is receiving increasing recognition. The focus is on regional collaboration between healthcare and educational institutions, with the workplace trainer playing a key role.

Providing suitable training requires customisation and flexibility, both in the learning process and in the support provided. This was in part prompted by the greater complexity of student support needs, and helps to attract, engage and retain healthcare professionals.

Highlights

Rating
The National Student Survey (2024–2025) again shows a great score for all programmes provided by the VU faculty of medicine. The VU Bachelor’s in Medicine was designated a ‘Top-tier programme’ for the eighth time.

Review of the VU Bachelor’s and Master’s medicine programmes

Both programmes are at various stages of review in order to maintain the high quality of the VU Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes in medicine and ensure that they remain well-aligned with the future healthcare landscape and societal developments. A collaboration with the UvA’s Master’s programme in medicine aimed at achieving maximum efficiency whilst maintaining a distinct profile for the two universities has begun.

Rise in the number of students taking the Master’s in Personalised Medicine (PM) and grants for additional income

There is steady growth in the number of students taking the Master’s in Personalised Medicine (research); the additional intake of students is also important given the additional income it is generating. With the introduction of the ‘preventive medicine’ specialist subject, the programme is anticipating growth amounting to an annual intake of 80 students.The faculty is also making greater efforts to obtain additional income by applying for grants.

Highlights

Top-tier programmes
The Universities Course Selection Guide (Keuzegids Universiteiten) this year again awarded the designation ‘Top-tier programme) to the UvA’s Medicine and Medical Informatics bachelor’s programmes, meaning that these programmes are among the best in the Netherlands. This is the second year in a row that the Bachelor’s in Medicine (UvA) has received this designation. The programme scored particularly well for lecturers and success rates.

From now on, selection for the Bachelor’s in Medicine will take place on the basis of an unweighted draw

Those running the Bachelor’s in Medicine (UvA) programme decided in 2025 to introduce an unweighted draw as the admission procedure for the 2026–2027 academic year. In an unweighted draw process, every applicant has an equal chance of admission irrespective of their education or other criteria. In introducing this process, the programme is moving away from the use of selection tests, aiming to promote equality of opportunity and diversity among potential students.

The Faculties of Medicine of VU University Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam, as well as the Innovation & Development Education Academy (IDEA) fall under the scope of Education and Training (O&O). The Board of Directors decided to set up a new Education and Training senior management structure, in the form of a collegiate body in 2025. This has resulted in Education and Training being given a shared mandate to implement education within Amsterdam UMC in a comprehensive and future-proof manner.

Amstel Academy provides training for Amsterdam UMC and also for the region and the rest of the country. Students arrived from 158 institutions. The number of students receiving training at Amstel Academy in 2025 is set out below: