Foreign students are wildly enthusiastic about their time in the Netherlands. Whereas the atmosphere in the city and the costs of lodgingsMedals for foreign student satisfaction are factors in this appraisal as well, the credits go to the institutions. The international study choice platform Studyportals.eu presented certificates to no less than fourteen Institutes of Higher Professional Education and universities. All of them scored eight out of ten or higher.

More than seventeen thousand European exchange students scored their experiences abroad. Some eight hundred of them studied in the Netherlands. “From a distance it is very difficult to determine what the best place to study is”, says Joran van Aart, one of the directors of Studyportals, who graduated from Industrial Design at TU/e in 2009. “Existing rankings focus on research first and foremost, but that is not always helpful for international students.”

It was announced earlier that foreigners enjoyed their student days in the Netherlands. What they appreciate in particular are the high level of education, the low tuition fee and the approachability of professors. They are less enthusiastic about the high costs of living and the lack of good student accommodation.

Studyportals does not divulge the exact scores per institution. The researchers have insisted that they should not make a ranking, but a sign of appreciation. Differences will not be major, for that matter. The institutions that were granted the designation ‘excellent’ all scored between 9 and 9.5. Van Aart adds that the difference between the gold and the silver medal is less than 0.1.