The most striking statistics concern the number of students who live away from home. In Velp, Leeuwarden and Wageningen, a full 60 percent live in a student house, and only 23 percent are still staying at ‘hotel Mama’. This is in strong contrast with other applied sciences institutions that took part in the survey. Nationally, an average of 59 percent of the students are still living with Mum and Dad, only 21 percent live in a student house and the rest live independently in other accommodation. The simplest explanation for this difference is the kind of degree courses on offer at VHL. Because many of its programmes are unique, it attracts Dutch students who live further away and are therefore more likely to move away from home. There are also a relatively large number of foreign students. The ‘broadest’ applied sciences institutions tend to attract more students from close by.
Heavy programmes
Thanks to all the students living nearby, student life at VHL is very lively. Student societies of almost all types have many members, and they spend a lot of time on their society, compared to other similar institutions. For example, as many as 17 percent of the students belong to a social club, compared with the national average of 32 percent. It also seems that VHL’s programmes are not among the easiest: VHL students spend more time on their studies and have fewer jobs on the side, and yet more of them need an extension to finish their degrees. The other participating Universities of Applied Sciences were Rotterdam, Saxion in Deventer, and Utrecht. A total of 1,528 Applied Sciences students filled in the questionnaire.