If you plan to study International and European Law at the University of Groningen, make another plan. It is truly not worth it. No one at this university cares about your academic progression, it is all about number here. Over half of students are failing courses and nothing is ever done about it. There are 70, 80% fail rates, and they will send every last person to take a resit. No care is given to individual students. It is well known among students that the faculty accepts too many students into the course and then intentionally tries to weed them out with irrationally difficult exams and a general lack of support. You can take a course six times for all they care. Barely any summer break, just lecturers and teachers with a bad level of English that treat you like you’re sub human. You will spend your entire academic career striving for a passing mark. The mental fatigue gets ridiculous. And there will be no one to help you. Study advisors can only show yo how badly you’re failing, they cannot offer any real solutions. It sounds dramatic, but I would not wish this course on my worst enemy. There is no organisation. The courses you take will have you wondering if you’re studying for the same degree that you signed up for. I don’t know who gave them the label of a top 100 university, but it certainly wasn’t anyone who’s ever spoken to a student in the faculty of law. EVER. Save yourself the hassle and either study in the arts or go to a different school and actually enjoy your university experience. Don’t make the same mistake as me.

I am in my second year of International and European Law and although the start of my BA degree was unsuccessful due to COVID, the staff at the University of Groningen was able to provide us with the best possible support. They helped us with housing, the structure of the city, how to register with the municipality, etc. The professors at my college are very helpful, always willing to listen and have excellent teaching skills. I really enjoy studying law, especially in the bachelor of law program, because it teaches us about such different areas as comparative constitutional law, criminal law, administrative law and market regulation and many more. The way the program is structured helps us find the right field that matches our interests.

I am a first-year student at the University of Groningen studying International and European law. The university offers a friendly environment, with its staff constantly trying to help the students. 

You can easily ask the professors any follow-up questions, during the break as well; the interaction is often casual and quite friendly. The curriculum is of high quality, with engaging lectures and tutorials. The curriculum encompasses exactly what I expected when I signed up for it, the combination of theory and practical application is what makes this degree so engaging.

The program is very well set out with a lot of interesting content, which I did not expect. The student life in the city is one of the best things about studying at RUG, it is very international and diverse and the whole city is filled with students, and there’s never a dull moment while living in this city! (except for the weather from October to March, there is literally just no sunlight)

The university of Groningen is in the top 100 universities of the world, however, does it live up to this standard?

The programmes within the university of Groningen are generally well run and organised, however there are a few bureaucratic inadequacies that make going to this university difficult.

The first being the lack of available funding for those in more difficult situations, such as no funding from parents. Having done a bachelors degree and now doing a pre-master in law, I have to fund my university fees and living situation alone. I work 2 jobs alongside my stay just in order to gain a loan from the government (14 hours a week) this makes it extremely difficult for students who are not Dutch, and for those in less privileged positions. The hourly minimum wage alongside the skyrocketing housing and gas prices does not help this situation.

Secondly, the University of Groningen will most likely accept most students into their university, however, they fail to consider that there are not enough houses available for all these students, leaving some people to live in tents, abandoned buildings and couch surf for their stay. This is obviously an extreme downside to the university in terms of the well-being of its students.

Thirdly, the University has decided to drop all accessibility to online options, now that the Dutch government has lowered its corona restrictions. This in turn makes some vulnerable students feel very unsafe, and also doesn’t account for students that may have developed anxiety with large crowds. An online option should be offered.

The study itself is well maintained and taught to a very high level, however, the pre-master itself is sometimes jumbled.

There are some courses that do not seem fitting for the masters that will be pursued eg: human rights master – having to do an administrative law course.

There is also the trouble with moving classes and years for every block of study. For one class you will be with second-year students, and for the next, 1st years. Therefore it is quite difficult to make connections because you are constantly moving around.

On a more positive note, the study is very intense, meaning that the duration is less than a full year, and can qualify one for a master in law, from any previous study.

The teachers are all very lovely, and the quality of teaching is very high for the law faculty.

Lastly, the city itself is a great place to live, (once in housing), and the atmosphere of the student life here is definitely welcoming.

The Pre-master programme in the faculty of law is an exciting and different way to explore a law study after one has completed a bachelor’s. It allows you to enter into a law degree with any previous study. The study itself is intense but rewarding. The difficulty with this study is that you are put into classes of several different year groups, and some of the time, you have no previous knowledge of these subjects, unlike the other classmates. Another issue is that some of the classes do not seem relevant to the topic pursued e.g. doing administrative law when pursuing a human rights degree.
Aside from this, the teachers are very helpful and the classes themselves are most of the time very informative for the exams.
I would suggest that the structure of the course needs some adjustments, however, the teachers and classes that are present, do as much as they can to help students along.
I would also add that in the covid-19 period, online options should always be available to those who are vulnerable.

The program seemed interesting at first, and at times the content is indeed as such, however there are many flaws such as the lack of interest in the performance of individual students such as through their response when 50% of the class had failed an exam worth 100% of their grade for example. Otherwise it does have redeeming qualities if you are someone who is highly efficient at self studying and generally have a knack for law.

The classes are mostly structured around delivering a maximum amount of content in the least amount of time without thinking much about pedagogy. I feel like at some point all class is is a succession of assigned readings to absorb over the length of the course, which seems like veiled auto-didactic school.

I really do not understand how this Univesity is so highly ranked! The professors here do not care about you at all! They just give an enormous amount of reading materials and expect you to learn it all by heart. Most of the time they are highly unhelpful and just serve to confuse you even further. The exams are literally just reproducing the reading materials and do not make you use your brain in any other way. Most of the professors grading the exams have an A2 level in English and do not understand half of the things that you have written. The student administration is slow and does not like to work much. As a whole nobody here really cares for your wellbeing, education or future. The city has a problem with accommodation, mainly due to the fact that most landlords do not want international students. The only international-friendly people here are other internationals, the Dutch student community avoids contact with internationals. Overall, the level of education is less than average with some courses providing no actual improvement of the knowledge you already have. The University has a policy to fail first-year-students on as many exams as they can on purpose, just so they can drop out by a specific period where the University retains the money that they have been given. What you end up paying for is literally clinical depression. I advise people to stay away from this place!