Student - May 12, 2010

Wageningen: good teaching, poor food

Students at Wageningen University are extremely satisfied. Wageningen scores very well compared with other universities in the Netherlands and around the world.

Wageningen University has been taking part in the International Student Barometer (ISB), a comparative survey of student satisfaction at different universities, since 2007. The most recent survey, in autumn 2009, puts Wageningen in twelfth position among the 123 participating universities in Europe, the US and the rest of the world. Wageningen actually got the best results of all the eleven Dutch universities.
As in previous years, students were particularly satisfied with the quality of the education. They were also very pleased with Internet access, safety and the sports facilities. Dutch students are less enthusiastic about access by public transport.
Both Dutch and foreign students give the catering low marks. 'People feel the quality is poor, the food too expensive, and the range on offer and opening hours too limited', is how Delia de Vreeze, policy officer for international recruitment, summarizes the complaints. The university is looking at how to improve the catering.
In addition, the university wants to put more emphasis on its international character. For international students are more likely to feel part of an international academic community (85 per cent) than Dutch students (74 per cent). De Vreeze: 'Foreign students want more contact with Dutch students. We want to encourage that by focusing on it in the Dutch information. We notice in our recruitment activities that schoolchildren do not realize how international we are.'