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Elsevier Best Studies: UM scores average across the board

Five bachelor’s programmes in first place

In the annual ‘Best Studies’ survey by the weekly magazine Elsevier, five bachelor’s programmes from Maastricht University (UM) were ranked in first place. University College Maastricht, as in previous years, received an exceptionally high student assessment (83). The other top-ranked programmes were Tax Law (with a score of 69), European Law School (67), Psychology (66) and European Studies (60). In the student evaluations, UM placed fourth (out of four) in the category ‘specialist universities’, while professors ranked UM second (out of three) in the same category. Elsevier distinguishes between broad, specialist and technical universities because the institutions vary in size and range of study programmes on offer. Compared with all Dutch universities, UM ranks around average.

This year a total of 17 bachelor’s programmes were assessed. Knowledge Engineering (with a score of 76), the Maastricht Science Programme (72), Arts and Culture (60) and European Public Health (59) also came out on top, but are the only ones in their respective categories. Five programmes were ranked in the top three in their categories: Econometrics and Operations Research (69), International Business (63), Fiscal Economics (63), Dutch Law (64) and Health Sciences (57).

Three of the 17 programmes were not in the top three: Economics came in fourth in its category (out of ten, with a score of 68), Medicine seventh (out of eight, score 60) and Biomedical Sciences sixth (out of seven, score 55).

For the fourth year in a row, Elsevier also published the results for the master’s programmes. Of the 38 UM programmes assessed, a national comparison could be made for only seven. Of these, Dutch Law (68) came in first place and a further four programmes came in second: Econometrics and Operations Research (79), Tax Law (70) and European Studies (55). The Physician–Clinical Investigator programme was also ranked second (with a score of 60), but out of only two programmes.

The ‘Best Studies’ survey is based on evaluations by students in the National Student Survey. In addition, full and associate professors choose the best programme within their discipline in the Elsevier Faculty Ranking.

The complete list of results can be found on the Elsevier website.
http://bestestudies.elsevier.nl/onderzoek/beste-studies-2015/17

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