This summary report addresses the fundamental objectives of higher education in the Netherlands and proposes structural reforms to help make higher education more effective. Part 1 outlines the focus of the report, while Part 2 reviews the tasks and functions of higher education in the Netherlands from a historical perspective. Part 3 examines the changing nature of higher education, focusing on the move from an elite to a mass system of higher education since the 1950s. Part 4 postulates that, due to this "massification" of higher education, fundamental structural reforms need to be implemented. Part 5 presents five principles for the reform of the higher education system, including institutional differentiation and the phased realization of objectives, academic and professional training, convergent curriculum development, intensification of education, and separation of accountabilities. Part 6 outlines plans for higher education reorganization. This scenario would provide for a clear separation between the initial stage of academic education and a second stage of professional or academic vocational education on the one hand and scientific research training on the other. A six-page summary in French in provided. An appendix contains a chart of the existing Dutch education system. Contains additional publications by the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy: a 47-item list of Reports to the Government and a 110-item list of preliminary and background studies (a few available in English, most in Dutch). (MDM)