Foreword.- Preface.- Lists of abbreviations and terms.- Part I: Introducing Talent Development and Honors in European Higher Education.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Developing honors education in specific national contexts.- 3. Methods and limitations.- Part II: The Benelux.- 4. The Netherlands: focus on excellence, honors programs all around.- 5. Belgium: complex system, differentiated development.- 6. Luxembourg: small, multilingual and international.- Part III: The Nordic Countries.- 7. Denmark: strong focus on talent development.- 8. Norway: slow shift towards differentiation.- 9. Sweden: incentives to move towards more differentiation.- 10. Finland: excellent basics, selective continuation.- 11. Iceland: getting back on track.- Part IV: The German-speaking Countries.- 12. Germany: foundations supporting talents.- 13. Austria: a rapidly expanding higher education sector.- 14. Switzerland: a patchwork, not (yet) including honors.- Part V: Talent Development and Honors in European Higher Education: a comparative perspective.- 15. A comparative perspective.- 16. Perspectives on talent development in European higher education.- 17. Breaking the academic lock step.- Appendix 1: List of all universities in Germany.- Appendix 2: Key links.- Appendix 3: Contact details honors programs.- Appendix 4: Interviews with key informants.- Appendix 5: Lists of tables, figures, maps and boxed texts.- Appendix 6: Eurypedia figures.- Appendix 7: Acknowledgements and thanks.

This book examines the much-debated question of how to unleash the potential of young people with promising intellectual abilities and motivation. It looks at the increasingly important topic of excellence in education, and the shift in focus towards the provision of programs to support talented students in higher education. It provides a systematic overview of programs for talented students at northern European higher education institutions (HEIs). Starting in the Netherlands, where nearly all HEIs have developed honors programs over the past two decades, the book explores three clusters of countries: the Benelux, the Nordic and the German-speaking countries. For each of these countries, it discusses the local culture towards excellence, the structure of the education system, and the presence of honors programs. In total, the book reviews the special talent provisions for nearly four million students at 303 higher education institutions in eleven countries. In addition, it offers an analysis of the reasons to develop such programs, a look into the future of honors education and a practical list of suggestions for further research. The Sirius Program assigned Marca Wolfensberger to carry out this research.