Higher education was hard hit during the pandemic, when everything had to be done remotely. But since then, students across all higher education institutions seem to have become increasingly positive about their degree programs.

General

Of the students at universities of applied sciences, 68.7 percent are satisfied or very satisfied with their degree program ‘in general’, while 7.7 percent are dissatisfied. Satisfaction levels are slightly higher than they were four years ago, when 66.4 percent were positive and over 10 percent were dissatisfied.

While research university students have always been more satisfied with their programs than their peers at universities of applied sciences, they too are happier now compared to the previous survey: 81.3 percent are satisfied, while only 4.6 percent are dissatisfied, compared to 78.6 percent and 6.2 percent four years ago.

The most recent survey was completed nearly 260,000 times. This means that almost one in three students answered questions about their degree program, rating everything from their teachers and the available facilities to the overall atmosphere.

According to a press release issued by the National Centre for Academic Guidance, which conducts the survey, programs in the agriculture and natural environment domain have the highest proportion of satisfied students, at 84.4 percent. Satisfaction scores were lowest for the education and economics domains: 69.9 and 70 percent, respectively. 

Atmosphere

Students tend to be the most positive about the atmosphere within their program. More than 80 percent of students at universities of applied sciences and 78 percent of those at research universities are satisfied with this, and one in three are even very satisfied.

But what about the rest of the results? Some students are ‘very dissatisfied’ with the atmosphere of their program, but the percentage of students giving this response has been slowly edging down over the years – in the latest survey, it was less than 1 percent.

Meanwhile, a growing number of students say they feel safe enough to be themselves. The picture here is broadly similar: the proportion of students who feel safe is slowly climbing to 85.5 percent (slightly higher at research universities and slightly lower at universities of applied sciences), while the group that does notfeel safe enough to be themselves grows smaller and smaller: it’s now 3.4 percent, compared to 3.9 percent four years ago.

Covid

The coronavirus crisis led to a decline in overall student satisfaction. Before Covid, 84 percent of research university students and 73 percent of the students at universities of applied sciences were satisfied with their degree program ‘in general’. So while there has been an improvement since then, satisfaction rates have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.

The creators of the survey dismiss these kinds of comparisons, noting that the questionnaire was revised in 2021. Overall satisfaction is still the first item, however.

Ministry of Education

The National Centre for Academic Guidance conducts the National Student Survey on behalf of the Ministry of Education. In creating the survey, it receives support from an advisory board whose members include representatives from public and private higher education institutions and the student organisations ISO and LSVb.

Prospective students can use the results of the survey to compare programs, for example on the Studiekeuze123 website or by consulting the ‘Keuzegids’ for higher education. Programs can also use the outcomes to reflect on their own performance.