Utrecht University - UU
speciality: Sociology

Utrecht University is known for its strong academic standards, which draw talented students and faculty globally. Its wide variety of high-quality programs, focused on research and innovation, provide a rich educational experience. The university’s diverse student population creates a multicultural environment that encourages global connections. Furthermore, Utrecht offers excellent support services, from academic advising to career counseling and mental health resources, ensuring students receive all the assistance they need throughout their academic journey.

The seminars are interactive and require students to voice out their opinions (you cannot escape from that haha)! Which can really help to deepen the understanding of the lectures. Yet, each learning block consists of 2 months which makes the schedule quite packed (having mid term after 3 weeks of class and same for final). If students are taking courses with higher-level, I guess the workload will be a bit high for them! But nevertheless, the professors and classmates are nice and always willing to help you out!

I had one of my worst experiences here in my whole life. I studied sustainable development- international development, in the Geosciences school and WOW, let me tell you, the disorganisation is unsurmountable. Between lack of preparation of workload, teachers, and supervisors not responding, a complete lack of awareness of mental health, and honestly, just a lack of a positive environment. I like to work in positive environments, where people are not stressed all the time and the workload is realistic to everyone. This was not that. Supervisors and lecturers tend to want to test you and trip you up rather than educate you and guide you further. As a Master’s student, I thought we were through with that kind of petty teaching and was looking forward to a more mature form of studying, yet we were talked down to, patronized, and ignored for the majority of my 2 years here. I would not recommend any person to put themselves through this nightmare of a course until it is restructured and organised. It is a waste of money, and even when your studies are delayed through the fault of the university – or in the case of COVID-19, they will still have no problems taking your money. I found that there was a degree on incompetence at every level, there is a systematic failure in how they run things. This includes the interactions with the board, who also do not reply or give reasonable advice, with the study advisor, who does not know the meaning of confidentiality or mental health, and the system itself where there is a lot of unnecessary, time-wasting procedures in place which are only a bigger distraction from the work itself, and often lead to a more financial burden. Do not apply here if you are a person who lives outside the box that the system expects you to be in because I’m warning you, this university is not prepared to deal with anything except what is written in the course guide, AKA the Course Bible.

UCU takes a multidisciplinary and comprehensive approach to learning, allowing you to experiment with an array of elective courses. There are great opportunities to go abroad on exchange or for summer programmes. With small-scaled classrooms, there is always room for open discussion and debate, moreover, students can get directed advice from professors they known on an individual basis. It has a pretty rigorous workload, but altogether very manageable!

I study on the international Campus of the University where all students follow the LA&S program. The accommodation provided by the university is big, well equipped, and the repairing staff is responsive. The academic infrastructures are amazing; every classroom is equipped with projectors, speakers, easily accessible computer interface (but black boards and chalk…). The classes are small (max 28 students), enabling conversations. However, many teachers do not efficiently enough promote it through the structure of their seminars. UCU is a bubble with an incredible amount of committees ran by students. The student representatives also have a lot of influence on academic decisions. Even though many stay in the bubble, the city center or the larger campus of the university are about a 7 to 10 minutes bike ride from UCU. Utrecht is extremely lively; it’s easy to pop the bubble if one wants it.
Students make up their own curriculum. The school also offers many interesting exchange destinations all over the world and the presence of exchange students at UCU is also greatly valued.