The National Student Survey (Dutch acronym NSE) was cancelled this spring due to the corona crisis. Since the Keuzegids Universiteiten is based partly on this survey, the 2021 edition, which appeared today, had to rely on results from previous student surveys.

But how meaningful are these previous judgements, now that all universities were forced to make a rapid switch to predominantly online education? The programs have changed radically compared to previous years. Even the renewed figures relating to the study success rate (how long do students take to complete a degree program?) might be outdated already. The impact of corona on the progression and graduation of students still remains unclear.

Security

The compilers did however rank programs, in light of the corona crisis, according to ‘security.’ They made a top five of programs with the highest study success rates and the best job prospects – although that too could change considerably due to corona. Dentistry and International Business are in first and second place.

TU/e’s Industrial Engineering and Chemistry &Chemical Engineering programs also offer much security, according to the Keuzegids. A top five of programs that scored the lowest was compiled as well. It includes Art history, Archeology, and Philosophy, but also Political Sciences and International & European Law, interestingly enough.

Changes

The judgements, incidentally, of theAccreditation Organization of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO) do not form part of the Keuzegids. It changed its accreditation process as of January 1 and no longer marks programs as ‘sufficient’ or ‘excellent,’ but only indicates whether a program meets the requirements. Much to the dismay of, among others, the Keuzegids compilers at the time, because the NVAO judgements no longer offer clear distinctions. Since the compilers also decided that the study success rates will play a more significant role, some programs obtained slightly different scores than last year.

The TU/e programs Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, which dropped significantly in last year’s ranking, lost some extra points due to the modified assessment criteria and scored 48 and 51 points respectively. These are TU/e’s lowest scores. Once again, Chemical Engineering and Chemistry (CE&C, 73 points) and Applied Physics (71) received the highest scores. When we count the chemistry program in Utrecht as a competitor of CE&C, it turns out that Industrial Design (61 points) is the only program at Eindhoven with a higher score than the national competition.

The two university rankings (traditional universities and other universities) have generally remained unchanged. Wageningen leads overall, and Nijmegen is the highest scoring general university. And just like last year, the University of Amsterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam rank bottom.

For what it’s worth.

Source: Keuzegids Universiteiten 2021. The maximum score is 100 points.