Trends in the research output and impact of universities in the Netherlands are examined, as reflected in scientific articles in journals pro-cessed for the Science Citation Index. At the level of sub fields in the natural, technical and life sciences, there has been hardly any concentration of research activities among Dutch universities during the 80s and 90s. In the 80s and to a lesser extent in the 90s, levelling of universities' research output in natural and life sciences is a dominant trend. Changes in distribution of students among the universities and the outcomes of evaluation studies conducted in the past probably have affected this trend positively towards uniformity in output. The academic systems in Sweden, Italy, Germany, Spain, Denmark and particularly Great Britain show a stronger concentration of research articles among universities than the Dutch academic system.