Excellence education, in the form of honours, talent or plus programmes, is a relatively new, but broadly adopted, educational form in Dutch higher education. As not much is know about its effects, this dissertation aims to contribute to our understanding in two ways. First, in terms of individual employability related outcomes of excellence education, both from the perspective of participating students and from the perspective of employers. Are students extrinsically motivated the participate? And does excellence education give recent graduates benefits in employers’ recruitment considerations? The second aim relates to organisational effects. To what extent is excellence education a testing ground for education innovations, and to what extent are innovations diffused to the entire higher education institution? The results show that excellence education does indeed have perceived effects on graduates’ employability. With respect to the organisation, some diffusion effects were observed, but more can be gained.