What are the best Bachelor’s programmes in the Netherlands? And which universities offer good teaching across the board? The Keuzegids Universiteiten aims to give prospective students a helping hand.

For each study programme, the compilers look at the opinions of students about the content, lecturers, exams, atmosphere and vocational preparation. Account is also taken of how many students reach the second year and how many get their diploma within five years.

A comparison of universities emerges from this every year: who has the best teaching? Since this comparison is tricky, the Keuzegids has two separate rankings: the ‘broad-based’ universities with a lot of faculties and the ‘other’ universities.

Jump to first place

The current rankings differ somewhat from last year. Of the broad-based universities, Utrecht has jumped from third to first place, while VU Amsterdam has plummeted from second place to the nether regions.

Of the ‘other’ universities, Enschede is the most notable one. This technical university was a clear number two last year but now drops to fourth position. Wageningen is still well out in front and Erasmus University Rotterdam is once again at the bottom of the list. Apart from that university, TU/e also performed better than TU Delft this year, with a score of 59 compared to 57.5.

The shifts are readily explainable. The students’ opinions come from the National Student Survey, and after considerable wrangling the questionnaire has been altered. It is therefore difficult to make a good comparison with previous years, in the view of the Keuzegids.

Limitation

You could also say that it highlights the limitations of such rankings. The top and bottom places are clear (Wageningen and Rotterdam) but the differences in between are quite small, so a new questionnaire can give rise to major shifts.

However, it could also be because a lot has changed in the past two years. Last year the questionnaire was not carried out because the institutions had their hands full with the coronavirus crisis, and a Bachelor's programme generally takes only three years. Now there are different students in a very different situation – especially in the spring, when the survey was carried out.