The program and caliber of professors are top-notch, faculty is also very helpful and considerate to student needs and concerns on lecture and tutorial sessions. The program flow for pre-masters and masters in Political Science has relevant content.

The VU University is trying to become more international, and that’s shown by the increasing number of international students every year. However, although the vast majority at the university know English very well, there are still some barriers for international students. For example, some staff members don’t know English, or some signs are only in dutch, and that’s not only a barrier but also makes the student feel out of place. Again, I’m not saying that you cannot live at uni with English. On the contrary, the university is international, and almost everyone knows English very well, but I was just suggesting further improving the institute’s internationalization. For what regards my course, PPE, I can say that it is very challenging, but at the same time, it allows you to open your horizons to the understanding of the world around us. PPE has its own floor in the main building, which was renovated when the program was started so that the facilities are modern and absolutely efficient in answering the demands of a modern type of education. Furthermore, the teaching staff is always very student-friendly. They encourage you to ask questions and emphasize the importance of discussing the topics explained (especially during the seminars, which only involve approx.15 students to guarantee a small-scale education and a personalized education). The content of the course is excellent, even though sometimes there is the impression (especially for the philosophical courses) that topics, thoughts, and ideas are briefly covered in light of the time constraint (especially in the first year). The VU is a campus university, with all the buildings in one place. This fact creates a pleasant “campus environment” where you can find all the facilities (gym, lecture halls, canteen, supermarket, theater, cinemas) in one site instead of many sites throughout the city. Although some new buildings have been built in the last few years, the campus is still undergoing an impressive renovation. Rightfully so: the W & N building is a bit outdated and will be replaced by new buildings, the Main Building is nice (and this is biased by the fact that I spend most of the time there eheh). Still, it is a funny combination of recently renovated areas and outdated spaces, but many say that this is his strength, and that’s actually what it makes it nice. One last thing: although the quality of education is pretty high, and the research output impressive (just look at the research and citation indexes in the leading university ranking), I would put more emphasis on networking and placement for the students as well.

Overall, the uni is good: it is to be appreciated the strong commitment of the university, at least in the last few years, to open its views and become more and more international. As a matter of fact, there are many new bachelor and master programs taught in English, each of which is very international or diverse in its student’s composition. However, there are still some limits. Some signals and posters are (only) in dutch, and some members of the staff only speak dutch, which makes it quite uncomfortable for both parties. If the university really aspires to become an international university, then it should make sure that everything is at least provided both in dutch AND in English, and that all the staff hired has a decent knowledge of English (which shouldn’t be too difficult since the Netherlands is the country with the highest proficiency level in English in the world!).
Furthermore, the university is also trying to build and create a new and nice university campus. However, at the moment, the whole project is still going with some nice and brand new buildings erected next to other frankly old and uninspiring buildings constructed in the 70s and never modernized since then. The Main Building (where the PPE floor is located) has been renovated, but it looks more like a strange mixture of modernized environments and areas where it still looks to be in the 70s. Besides that, the PPE floor is brand new and has all the facilities needed for a high-level education at least 50% of the students in that program are internationals (even though the majority of them are germans), and the small-scale and intensity of the program lead to the creation of a small community of people. Furthermore, there is also a nice communication and relationship between students and members of the staff (PPE staff: teachers, seminar teachers, etc.). The teachers are always ready to help and answer our questions (some teachers even spent hours after the lectures talking and discussing with students the contents of the class), which is very nice.
To conclude, another tip to the uni administration: although the level of education is pretty good, nowadays what makes the difference between one university and the other is the network that they can create with businesses, other prestigious schools, etc. and that’s where I feel the VU has to improve a lot. Especially for PPE, where supposedly one expects to have even more support, the student has to find an internship during the first semester of the third year without any support from the VU. In general, there is not much networking, and partner universities are often not on par with the VU (for my course, there are only a few internationally renowned partner universities, the rest are only universities that happened to be “attractive” countries for student-exchange). This last point is crucial because, again, it’s the demarcation criterion between just good universities and excellent universities.