UTRECHT - Education, health and culture
A wide range of possibilities for education
The province has a wide range of educational establishments. In addition to the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht with about 23 000 students, there are two smaller universities: The Netherlands Business School (Universiteit Nyenrode) and the University for Humanistics. Furthermore various (higher) vocational training institutions reside in the province like the Hogeschool van Utrecht with 28 000 students and the largest School for the Arts in the Netherlands, the HKU with 2 650 students.
Fulltime education is compulsory until 16 years, after which there are two additional years of school part-time. Primary education is given at 475 schools in the province in which 112 000 pupils are being educated. About 62 000 pupils are attending one of the 62 institutions for secondary education.
Health resources
An Academic Medical Centre (UMC) is to be found in the city of Utrecht. This centre has an hospital with more than 1000 beds. In total the province has nearly 7000 hospital beds (including psychiatrich hospitals), which means there are 6,1 beds per 1000 inhabitants available. This is somewhat higher than the Dutch rate of 5,3 beds.
The rate of doctors in the province is 5 per 1000 inhabitants and much higher than the Dutch rate which is 3 per 1000 inhabitants.
Culture
All cities in the province have one or more libraries. In all there are 72 libraries in the 33 municipalities in the province.
The Utrecht Provincie has about 60 museums of all kinds and sizes with very varied collections: from historical costumes, chiming clocks, organs, furniture, locomotives to modern art, much is to be found in these museums. The oldest municipal museum in the Netherlands is the Centraal Museum in Utrecht that was founded in 1838. The museum has a large and varied collection of art with old masters, modern art, design, fashion and local history. The Centraal Museum oversees the world's largest Rietveld collection and is in charge of the Rietveld Schröder House. This house was built in 1924 in accordance with the architectural principles of the Stijl by the famous designer and architect Gerrit Thomas Rietveld. It is considered an important icon of architectural history by Unesco which placed it on the world heritage list. In Amersfoort, among other museums, are the Armandomuseum, named after the internationally well-known contemporary artist and the Mondriaanhuis. In this house the famous artist Piet Mondriaan was borne. It is now a museum for constructive and concrete art and also a documentation centre for the life, works and ideas of Mondriaan.
An important, internationally well-known cultural event in the province is the Holland Festival Early Music Utrecht. Since 1982 each year for ten days many concerts and renowned ensembles transform Utrecht into the capital of Early Music.
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