The position of ITC as a private foundation for scientific education is officially recognised in the Dutch education system.
Prof Schermerhorn had tried to turn the ITC into an "inter-university institue" under the new "law on higher education" (WWO) of 1960 in order to avoid losing talented staff to the lure of university professorships. A serious obstacle was the fact that the ITC bachelor's and master's degrees -modelled on the anglo- saxon system in order to ensure their currency in the international arena - were not recognized as academic degrees in the Dutch WWO.
By April, 1966, Schermerhorn was exploring a new "interim" solution which had already been adopted by the ITC's alter-ego, the International Institute for Social Studies in the Hague. Article 144 of the WWO allowed the ITC to acquire formal academic status on condition that it adopt new statutes in conformity with the law and submit a list of its degres for ad hoc approval by the Ministry. In the meantime, it was expected that the WWO would be amended so as to make it possible for the ITC to become a full-fledged inter-university instiute within a matter of years while keeping its deviant titles.
(Taken from "60 years of ITC", Nil Disco (2010), p48-49)