Holland Scores High in International Student Satisfaction Awards

14.10.2015

International students are highly pleased with the education they receive in the Netherlands

International students are highly pleased with the education they receive in the Netherlands, scoring the country 8,8 out of 10 in the StudyPortals International Student Satisfaction Awards 2015. Students ranked the Netherlands the 7th best country to study in Europe beating Germany and the UK.

The StudyPortals International Satisfaction Awards 2015 is based on more than 17 000 reviews received on the student experience platform STeXX.eu during the 2014-2015 academic year. The results of the survey was recently made public at the annual ICEF conference in Glasgow.

Surprisingly France, one of the most popular study destinations in the world, got the lowest score in Europe when it comes to student satisfaction levels.  Only Ireland, the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland and Poland scored higher than Holland. Dutch institutes of higher education won 10 awards, bettered only by Spain (24), Germany (16) and Italy (11).

However, while international students who come to Holland are highly pleased, it seems Dutch students who go abroad have a less satisfactory experience, scoring their time there with only 8,1 out of 10. A press release from Study Portals says comments from students suggest this is due to the high standard of education they receive in their own country.

Despite a slight decrease since last year, international student satisfaction continues to remain high in Europe, with 86% of students being satisfied with their study abroad experience, compared to 89% in 2014. Only 7% of students report a score below 6 to their international study experience this year.

 

Destination country Average student satisfaction rating Number of outstanding universities Number of excellent universities Number of very good universities
Ireland 09.Apr 1 3 1
Finland Aug.95 0 4 5
Sweden Aug.90 1 3 4
Denmark Aug.89 0 5 1
Switzerland Aug.85 0 0 2
Poland Aug.85 1 2 4
Netherlands Aug.80 1 3 6
Norway Aug.78 0 2 1
Czech Republic Aug.77 0 2 3
United Kingdom Aug.75 0 5 4
Germany Aug.71 1 6 9
Austria Aug.64 0 1 4
Spain Aug.62 0 4 20
Portugal Aug.56 0 1 5
Italy Aug.46 0 2 9
Hungary Aug.44 0 1 2
Belgium Aug.26 0 3 4
France Aug.23 0 0 5

Source: StudyPortals

WUP 15/10/2015
by Anesca Smith
©WUAS Press