Dutch universities

[newbie24]

Anyone have good experiences with bachelor's level education in English at a Dutch university?

[NomDeClavier]

DH did his Bachelors in Maastricht and is very positive about it.

[newbie24]

Good to hear, thanks. Were there many international students with him?

[NomDeClavier]

Well he's French and there was at least another French student, 1 from Portugal, a bloke from Iceland, 2 South Africans, a whole bunch of Germans, some Belgians, a Russian or two - and that's just the ones I know. Not sure whether there were any

[NomDeClavier]

Ach, any Brits. Although there was a Dutch-Irish girl.

[livingzuid]

Good universities here. Standard of English is excellent everywhere and they have several universities in the top 100. He won't struggle. And it is much cheaper!

[livingzuid]

Sorry, missed your other question. Lots of European students come here to study and there is a big Chinese contingent doing undergraduate as well.

[newbie24]

Thank you both!

[gerrit]

Most bachelor's programs are not taught in English. There are very few international students studying Maths, Physics, Chemistry, ... at undergraduate level since all courses are in Dutch. Occasionally a 3rd year course will be taught in English because of Erasmus students or because the lecturer is not Dutch but in general a high degree of proficiency in Dutch would be required. The University College programs are international and taught in English but are of a variable standard. Many masters programs are taught in English and many PhD students are international.

[tribpot]

This Beeb article lists those unis who were running courses in English - I remember it because I thought it might appeal to ds at some point.

[newbie24]

Thanks for the input. Do you happen to know which of the University College programs has the better reputation...? It does sounds as if there are new programs in English (besides the University Colleges) popping up around NL but they are new, so hard to get a sense of their quality.

[NomDeClavier]

Utrecht, Maastricht and Leiden are all very well thought of. What subject area are you looking at? That will, to a certain extent, narrow the field.

[TheTerribleBaroness]

Delft has a good reputation for electronics and software engineering.

[Longtime]

www.studyinholland.nl/

Here's a link you can use to find bachelors in English. They seem to add more and more each year but the choice is still limited.

[quirrelquarrel]

I got rejected after interview by Utrecht- they basically said I wasn't social enough in the feedback! I get the feeling they want very confident people who are joiners, get involved with everything etc. I was a bit gutted, I really liked the look of Utrecht.

[TheTerribleBaroness]

:( do you have a plan B?

[quirrelquarrel]

Who me? Oh I'm in 2nd year at a uni I really like now, this was about three years ago! no regrets might try for a masters in Holland though, I want to study there still.

[TheTerribleBaroness]

Yes, sorry, I didn't make it clear, did I?

Well, that was good then. :)

[newbie24]

Thank you all for your input, very helpful and much appreciated!

And now, shifting gears and looking one country south... anyone have any firsthand info on studying in Belgium?? And yes, we know that there are no undergraduate programs in English there, but nonetheless an option.

Thoughts..?

[kelda]

I did a degree in a Belgium university, afflilated to Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. In Flemish. It was very hard, much more rote learning then required for bristish univerisities (I also have degrees from two bristish unis).

The amount of learning for exams was huge.

One negetive is there was not much encouragement of original thinking.

[Longtime]

My ds's went to Belgian schools and theirs was very similar to kelda's experience at university. 14 year old dd has just over three years of school left and she is adamant that she is going to follow her dbs and study in the UK. She is sick to death of all the learning by rote. In her school, they study 12 subjects, 11 of which they have to keep up until the age of 18 and only one option. All academic subjects. They feel you should do music, art etc outside of school. However, the work load is so huge they have little time to do much outside of school. I think this just continues at a university level. Rant over!

[Longtime]

Oh but I forgot to say, I do know of one undergraduate program in English:

www.groept.be/www/bachelor_programs/bachelor/

[newbie24]

Wow, very helpful insights. Thank you both!

[kelda]

Longtime, I was thinking that I had seen Bachelor programs in english at KUL - certainly in philosophy.

[AnandaTimeIn]

Ds is studying at LUC, my dad did his engineering degree in Delft (war years, another story)...

University Colleges are expensive, far more than Dutch universities (Dutch language)....

You would have to live here to get a cheap (er) university education (stufi) - studyfinanciering = grant... goes by income.

[AnandaTimeIn]

Reckon 20K a year all-in :-O