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Small-scale education highly appreciated by students

Students have a higher appreciation of their educational programme if it consists of small-scale and intensive courses. According to the Keuzegids Universiteiten 2010, an evaluation guide to Dutch universities published on 17 December, smaller educational institutions tend to score higher than larger, traditional universities.

Like last year, Maastricht University has been ranked in the top three best universities, following Wageningen University and the Open University. The small-scale and intensive Problem-Based Learning system ‘for which Maastricht is renowned’* has undoubtedly contributed to this.

Programmes
Out of all the bachelor’s programmes, the University College received the highest mark in the Keuzegids report, namely a 7.2. This puts the college in second place (after Utrecht) in this category. The programmes International Business (6.6), Econometrics and Operations Research (6.8) and Knowledge Engineering (6.8) all ended up in first place. European Studies also came in first, albeit with a mere 5.4.

Medicine in Maastricht was evaluated with a 7.0 and wound up in second place, hot on the heels of frontrunner Groningen. Psychology (5.6) and Molecular Life Sciences (6.0) both took out third place, while Arts and Culture and Economics (6.0) and Business Economics (5.2) both came in fourth. Tax Law was ranked first with a mark of 5.8. Dutch Law and the European Law School only scored 4,2. What is striking is that all the law faculties were evaluated with remarkably low scores (with the exception of the Open University).

For more information on the Keuzegids Universiteiten 2010, please visit www.keuzegids.org

* source: Keuzegids Universiteiten 2010.