More and more students are arriving every year and that sometimes seems to come at the expense of the quality. In Rotterdam, there is dissatisfaction with the facilities, IT and the lack of study spots. Only Wageningen seems to buck the trend, according to the new University Keuzegids.
Three rapidly growing universities have tumbled on the ranking list of the Keuzegids, a guide for aspiring students, which was published today. Take Leiden University, for example, where the number of first years has soared by 40 percent since 2010: bachelor students now have less appreciation for their lecturers, the teaching and the achievability of the study programme.
Rotterdam falls furthest
At the equally quickly expanding Erasmus University, there is dissatisfaction with the facilities, the ICT and the lack of study spots. Over the past two years, the Rotterdam university has fallen furthest in the rankings: it now has the second lowest score, leaving only the heavily subscribed University of Amsterdam below it.
The problem also occurs in the popular science and technological subjects. Fast growing TU Eindhoven has dropped down the rankings. The University of Twente, on the other hand, has leapt up the rankings: here, the growth in the number of students has been less extreme.
Wonder of Wageningen
The only university to combine growth with constant quality is Wageningen University. For over ten years, the ‘green’ university has consistently topped the rankings – despite the number of first year students doubling in those ten years. The Keuzegids refers to “the wonder of Wageningen”.
Of the ‘broad-based, classical’ universities offering programmes from a wide range of disciplines, the University of Groningen is valued highest by the Keuzegids. Utrecht University, voted number one by weekly magazine Elsevier, is in third place in the Keuzegids.
Poor English
For the first time, the Keuzegids addresses internationalisation and English-taught programmes at the universities. It concludes that this is still not working optimally, particularly in the TUs. The poor English of the tutors can come as quite a surprise to students.
At TU Eindhoven and the University of Twente, lecturers are rated 6.3 on their English. Their colleagues in Maastricht, Groningen and Tilburg are more fluent in the language, scoring almost a whole point higher.
The University Keuzegids is published every year to help future bachelor students choose where to study. Student opinions from the National Student Survey, the opinion of experts and dropout statistics and contact hours also count.
