Elsevier magazine publishes a report on higher education every year. The editorial staff distinguishes between comprehensive universities, specialist universities, and universities of technology, since not all universities are of the same size, nor do they all offer the same programs.

Eindhoven isn’t the only one to receive a compliment from Elsevier: among comprehensive universities, Leiden University has the happiest students. Of the specialist institutions, that title goes to Erasmus University Rotterdam. Wageningen University received an honorable mention. Although it’s hard to compare the latter university to any of the others, its students are “obviously very content”, according to the editors.

The two Amsterdam universities and Twente University landed the worst scores. The University of Amsterdam has 21 programs where students are less satisfied than elsewhere, VU Amsterdam nineteen, and Twente University six.

Apart from student opinions, the magazine also asks professors to rate the institutions, and they were very positive about TU/e. A little over forty percent of scientists questioned feel Eindhoven offers the most high-quality programs. The scientists are also impressed by Utrecht University programs (39 percent) and Tilburg University (36 percent). Delft publishes the most scientific articles, as far as the professors are concerned.

To compile the university ranking, Elsevier checked at what universities students gave their ‘program in general’ an ‘above average satisfaction’ rating in the National Student Survey. Questions concerning teachers, buildings, the curriculum and timetables, for example, have not been included in this ranking.

So all in all, the overall score doesn’t say much about the individual programs. It may be wise for future students to check the detailed scores for each program. For example: Psychology should be studied at Erasmus University, yet freshmen who want to enroll in Management Sciences are better off at Groningen University.