Organisation

Environmental Sciences on the rise

The bachelor’s programme Environmental Sciences has more than twice the number of first-year students it had in the previous year. Management, Economics and Consumer Studies remains the largest bachelor’s programme.
Roelof Kleis

All but four bachelor’s programmes are growing, as is shown by a comparison of the registrations at the end of September with those of last year. At the moment, we have 1604 first-year bachelor’s students walking around on campus. That’s 131 (8.9%) more than a year ago. However, the numbers fluctuate strongly per programme (see table below). Four bachelor’s even saw their numbers diminish. Management, Economics and Consumer Studies, the largest programme, is one of the bleeders.

Despite this decrease, the programme remains in the lead, just in front of runner-up Biology – the programme with the largest increase in absolute terms. Biotechnology and Environmental Sciences also show an impressive growth. For Environmental Sciences, this 60% increase is not just huge, it was also entirely unexpected. ‘We did not do anything in particular to achieve this’, says programme director Theo Lexmond. ‘In the past three years, the number of first-year students fluctuated around 35. The 56 students we now have are a change in trend. Of course, the question remains whether this will be a lasting change.

We did not do anything in particular to achieve this.

Theo Lexmond, programme director Environmental Sciences

For that matter: Environmental Sciences has attracted much larger numbers of students in the past. Lexmond: ‘In the 90’s, when it was still called Environmental Protection, we even had years with 150 first-year students. But we have also had years in which there were only 15.’ He does not find the influx of students alarming for now. ‘In the first semester, students follow courses that are shared with other programmes. Programme specific courses follow afterwards. We still need to see how we will tackle that.’

Underdogs

Other strong growers are the "underdogs" Communication Sciences and Agricultural and Bio Resource Engineering, which grew 46 percent and 36 percent respectively. Communication Sciences made considerable progress last year with the Future City Challenge, a competition for students in secondary school. This seems to have borne its fruit. Tourism grew by 27 percent and is the second-smallest bachelor’s programme, after Communication Sciences.

The largest losses were noted in Public Health and Society, which saw a decrease of one fifth of its first-year student numbers. Plant Sciences, Molecular Life Sciences and the previously mentioned Management, Economics and Consumer Studies also shrunk.

Numbers of first-year students by bachelor’s programmeManagement, Economics and Consumer Studies162169-7
Biology15813325
Nutrition and Health14913811
Food technology14813612
Biotechnology13110823
International Development Studies86806
Animal Sciences and Aquaculture85832
Molecular Life Sciences8592-7
International Land and Water Management786612
Soil, Water and Atmosphere73676
Forest and Nature Management685810
Public Health and Society6380-17
Landscape Architecture and Planning61565
Plant Sciences6065-5
Environmental Sciences563521
Agricultural Economics and Rural Policy51447
Agricultural and Bio Resource Engineering382810
Tourism28226
Communication Sciences241311
total16041473131

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