This paper was prepared for the founding conference of the Association of European Schools of Planning, held in Amsterdam, November 1987. It was to treat 'Dutch planning education: where it is now and how it got there'. Con- sidering the current precarious state of Dutch planning education and the na- tional review of it which is being made, a section was added 'Where it must go next'. Although that section is aimed at a Dutch audience it will also be interesting to others, as it poses questions relevant to planning education everywhere. The link between the first two sections and the last is provided by the secticn 'The vulnerability of Dutch planning education'.