The facilities and the standard of education create an environment conducive to intellectual growth for students. The campus boasts diversity in culture, educational options, and available amenities. The university is well-equipped to support both academic and extracurricular pursuits with outstanding facilities. Instructors, highly knowledgeable in their fields, impart lessons with a dynamic mix of enthusiasm and expertise.

From the moment I stepped onto the campus, I felt welcomed and supported. The university’s strong sense of community fostered an environment where collaboration and personal growth flourished. Whether it was joining student clubs, attending seminars, or participating in community service projects, I always felt a sense of belonging. The approachable professors, approachable staff, and engaged peers made navigating university life enjoyable and enriching.

My present bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Groningen has been a revelation to me. You can explore the various topics in psychology  in this course, which can aid in determining which path you want to take in your senior year. They take care to integrate everyone during your first year while you take courses with a particular class. This enables you to receive excellent support and to constantly seek and solicit guidance. A study buddy program has also been implemented, requiring participants to meet with a foreign student once each week for three months. By responding to questions and providing information on a range of topics, they aid your international student in acclimating to the new setting and creating a network for himself or herself. They aid in both the establishment of your personal network and the acclimation of your international student to the new environment. They provide them solid guidance and demonstrate activities that could be entertaining or useful. One the dislikes were that some of the concepts were quite hard to follow because we moved through them so quickly. Secondly, the statistics requirement for the bachelor’s degree in psychology is the other letdown. A lack of support and improvement causes many students to fail the course every year. We might anticipate adjustments if the passing rate was very low each year, but that is not the case.

After studying here for over a year, I believe I can precisely pen my experience down so others can benefit from it.
To begin with, the professors are well-versed in their fields. They are also passionate and knowledgeable. Though I will not lie, there are some hiccups. On some rare occasions, professors tend to just read off the slides rather than to explain them properly. Additionally, since most of our lectures went online due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, professors also lost some enthusiasm. In contrast, other professors bring new information and ways of teaching. There are both highs and lows.
One of the other prominent aspects of this University, and in fact, the city, is the constant social interaction and diversity. With merely 200,000 (approx.) people, students run into each other all the time! Especially, if you are based in central Groningen. Additionally, this place is thoroughly multi-cultural and very diverse.

There is no way to sugar-coat this; the housing here is terrible. There appear to be more students than student accommodations. At the beginning of almost every academic year, new students are found homeless for the initial time period. And what’s worse is that the University does not attend to such students. Finding a roof over your head as an international student is even worse and some locations are predominantly for the Dutch-speaking. The rent will also rinse your bank account (mainly for internationals). You have to be eyes-wide alert and quick when looking for a place to stay.

Groningen is also very accessible and convenient. There are supermarkets in every single nook and corner plus the city centre has several restaurants and cute cafes.

The architecture here is wonderful. The diva of all, the Academic Building, is properly European with a very Hogwarts aura. But you will also find more recently constructed buildings like the Zernike campus. The buildings attend to all your tastes and choices. Additionally, every faculty has a canteen and reading rooms. And you have access to all the faculties. So even if you are a Sociology student who loves the Science and Engineering department, you can go study there every day!

All in all, sure the University has some faults and fallacies, but I have had a thrilling experience so far and would definitely recommend this place to newcomers.

The University of Groningen is known for being of good quality and for attracting a large number of international students. However, the Netherlands in general has a huge housing problem. In 2018, students had to sleep in tents, and now in 2021, the same problem might occur. It is absurd how difficult it is to find housing in Groningen. Many students end up housed illegally, without a BSN or no postal address, keeping their postal address from their previous student houses. Landlords, students’ houses and many take advantage of students charging ridiculous prices for a single room. This year (2021) it has been ranging between 650-850 euros per month and there are still many students who have no housing. So if you want to end up homeless, feel free to join. We even have a FB group called: Homeless Students in Groningen.

I’m studying psychology at the RUG and I am super satisfied with the course. I feel that I am learning a lot. The professors and lecturers are competent as well and the working groups for certain courses are well organized. Within the curricular, there is an emphasis on self-regulated learning which I believe is a really important concept to learn and on which the university could assist more.
Overall I believe that the university should emphasize collaborative work with student association – since there are so many and they have so much potential – in which the students can develop outside of academia to become more competent in projects based work, such as in the working field, entrepreneurial endeavours or multicultural working groups.
All in all, I am happy to be at the RUG.
I would definitely recommend it!