Going Dutch! A Perspective on Universities in the Netherlands

With its affordable living costs, global outlook, excellent transport links and renowned universities, the Netherlands remains an attractive destination for undergraduate studies. Two Ellesmere College Upper Sixth students recently travelled to the Netherlands to take part in university open days.

A Level Student Patrick Crowe, who plans to read Linguistics, visited Amsterdam University and Leiden University. He said: "Not only is Leiden one of the highest-ranked Dutch universities, but one of the modules offered as part of the Linguistics degree is called 'descriptive Linguistics' which is an area I am extremely interested in, so I have applied for this course. Leiden is a very pretty and cosmopolitan city with a global outlook. I plan to find a suitable flat to share with like minded students, as campus accommodation in Leiden is quite rare, so in addition to my course taught in English, I may even learn Dutch as part of the university experience. I look forward to experiencing another country and culture not too far away from home."

Meanwhile, IB student and Prefect Paula Lotze attended a university experience day offered by Maastricht University's faculty of Business and Economics. She said: "Maastricht is ideally located in Southern Holland, with good transport links to Belgium, Germany and the North-East of France. It was therefore not surprising that the 30 fellow applicants I spent the day with hailed from Germany, Luxemburg, Belgium, Spain and France as well as from the Netherlands. Faculty staff at Maastricht were international, too, and enjoyed showing us the impressive university facilities and the city of Maastricht. I enjoyed attending several tutorials where we conducted economic research in small groups for presentation to a larger audience in the afternoon. We also debated the economic impact of the latest political developments on the European and global landscape. This experience gave me a great insight into student life and I would recommend these unversity experience days to all other young economists interested in global perspectives."

Patrick and Paula agree on one important matter: "With more than 1500 courses taught entirely in English, we believe Dutch undergraduate degrees are an attractive option that fellow Ellesmere students should also consider when making their university choices."

Ellesmere College's Head of Sixth Form, Dr Tom Gareh, commented: "It is wonderful to see our students looking at the wider opportunities available to them once they leave our Sixth Form and continuing to build on the experience that their engagement with their friends from all over the world at Ellesmere College has given them. They are role models for a bright future."

26th February 2020  Back to News