Princess Amalia of Orange will study from next September a three-year interdisciplinary degree that includes Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics at the University of Amsterdam.
The heiress to the throne of the Netherlands will follow a program whose classes are taught in English and is unique in the Netherlands.
The Information Service of the Royal House (RVD), which announced on Monday the decision of the 18-year-old girl, added that she Amalia will settle in "rented accommodation where she will reside with other students."
This stage of her formation is considered private.
The eldest daughter of the kings, Guillermo and Máxima, has broken with the family tradition of being educated —as her father and before her her grandmother, the former queen and today Princess Beatriz— at the University of Leiden, the most country old.
The degree chosen by Amalia is presented with its acronym in English, PPLE, for the four disciplines it embraces, and requires a prior selection process.
The princess had to overcome it like the rest of the 220 students accepted in the first year.
The University of Amsterdam has welcomed the future presence of the heiress in its classrooms, and Radboud Winkels, the dean who oversees her syllabus, has stated the following: "We teach working in groups and approaching issues from different angles." .
To illustrate this approach, he has given the example of the pandemic, saying that it has transcended the health crisis: “It has also been about business interests, loneliness and fundamental rights.
All this, matters dealt with in the PPLE”.
More information
Princess Amalia can also be queen of the Netherlands if she marries a woman
Registration costs 4,418 euros per year.
According to university data published in 2020, there were 72% female students and 28% male students in this grade.
36% were Dutch, and 64% from other countries.
Alexia, the second daughter of the Dutch kings, 16 years old, also studies in English: she is following her Baccalaureate at the United World College of the Atlantic, in Wales, the same center as Princess Eleanor.
The little girl, Ariane, 15, is attending school in The Hague.
De Prinses van Oranje start in september met de bachelor Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics (PPLE) aan de...
Posted by Koninklijk Huis on Monday, May 30, 2022
Amalia's decision to move to Amsterdam during her university years will require adjustments.
In the Netherlands, halls of residence or student residences as such are not a tradition.
Yes, there is property for them in the private sector, which rents the flats, but the lack of rooms is one of the biggest headaches of the university education system.
Every year there are housing problems, small rooms at prices that can reach 500 euros, and students traveling for weeks, if not months, in search of accommodation.
There have been protest demonstrations, and even camping in tents set up in parks due to lack of space.
According to RVD spokesmen, the princess will live with other students "in accommodation that will be rented."
It is not specified whether it is a building already used for it or a house chosen for that purpose.
During the sabbatical year that she took after high school, Amalia has done internships at the Oranje Fonds foundation, dedicated to social inclusion.
The kings are her patrons, and the young woman has also participated in volunteer work in two other centers, which have not transcended to preserve her privacy.
Amalia de Orange will go to university after having passed the Baccalaureate with an average grade of 8 (
cum laude
).
She is a good student, like her two sisters, and in 2021, shortly before her 18th birthday, she renounced the allocation of 300,000 euros per year that corresponded to her thereafter.
In a letter to Prime Minister Mark Rutte, she said she was "uncomfortable with the stipend."
“As long as you have little to offer in return, when there are other students who are having a hard time;
especially because of the uncertainty of the pandemic, ”she stated.
The Dutch Congress had been critical of that money, and also of the expenses and vacations of the kings, Guillermo and Máxima, during the coronavirus.
Both of these things have hurt the couple's popularity since 2020, and their eldest daughter's temporary relinquishment of that salary was welcomed.
Among the criticisms that have also dotted the young princess is, yes, her birthday party.
In December 2021, she celebrated her coming of age in the palace gardens with twenty guests.
At that time, the Government did not advise more than four, and her royal father had to admit that "it was not a good idea to organize the meeting."
