Utrecht University - UU vs HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht vs Tilburg University vs TIAS School for Business and Society vs Saxion University of Applied Sciences

Utrecht University strikes the ideal balance between top-tier academics and an amazing student experience. As a science major, I love how challenging and research-focused the program is—it really pushes me to think deeper. The Utrecht Science Park campus is super modern, sustainable, and just a great place to study. What really makes UU special is its international vibe. Working with classmates from all over the world brought fresh perspectives to every project. The libraries are fantastic (I lived in both the silent study zones and the lively café areas!), and a cool bonus is the free Dutch classes for international students—they seriously helped me feel at home. Utrecht itself is the perfect student city: historic canals, fun events, and just the right mix of energy and coziness. Sure, there’s some paperwork headaches sometimes, but overall, UU gave me everything I needed to grow—both academically and as a global citizen.

As the title suggests, in my experience as a third-year business student, that is the best short description that can be given to HU. It definitely is not the best school and there are flaws, very annoying and disappointing at times, which take time to be solved. Most of these flaws are related to communication issues. In contrast, it has some advantages too. I had the opportunity to meet and be taught by experienced professionals who helped me develop my skills and enhance my knowledge and abilities as a young business student and professional. Another very good advantage is that at HU you get to do 2 internships and one study abroad, trio that other universities do not offer. Also, with the new program, there is so much flexibility to shape your own path but also the opportunity to study more languages which constitute a great asset for one's future career. The city represents a good pawn as well since it is very central, modern and student friendly. Also, for someone who wants to travel every now and then, it is a perfect location. What I can recommend you, the one who reads this review, the undecided student, is that you should consider these things when you decide which school you want to go to, try to have your own trade-off between what is important to you and how the institution is ranking in different aspects. HU is, in the end, a good school and the issues that are going on are not major and are fixable so do not worry too much about that. I just wanted to be realistic while writing this review because this is what I would have liked to read when I was in your place. Good luck!

The city is quite bad to live in and ugly, on top of very expensive. The faculty of psychology is quite okay. Studying there has given me a good theoretical base. However, I have one major complaint, which is the way the university treats students individually. The student desk is the only way to obtain official documents from them (for example, the documents I needed to apply for a Master's degre) and aside from the difficult office hours and long wait time on the phone, I was literally told upon requesting a very necessary document "sorry, we´re not going to do that for you, it is too much work for us". when I suggested that I could put the document together myself and then just have it reviewed and stamped by them, she said htat it wouldn´t be valid. This resulted in me not being able to apply for Masters that year and taking a gap year, which is not the impact I ever thought a clerk would have on my life. Another complaint I have that resulted in a life-changing event is about my thesis. I chose to do a systematic review (within the Clinical Track) because it interested me, and I was fully informed that the program of the systematic review was still a pilot and subject to change. My supervisor was lovely and I had a great experience with her, that left me feeling like I learned something, and I was going to get a decent grade on said thesis that would then allow me to apply for a Clinical Psychology Masters in the Netherlands. For context, up until this point in my education, I had never failed an exam or a course as I always had average to high grades and I dedicate the appropriate time and effort to my studies. My thesis, on the other hand, was rather controversial. I received the grade I expected from my supervisor (which was within the range of my grades overall), whereas the second assessor failed me on half the criteria and didn't put in the effort to provide appropriate feedback. As the two grades were too different from each other, my thesis was reviewed by a third assessor, who just did the averages between the grades of the first two assessors and included sad faces ":(" in her feedback for my months of work, which all resulted in a grade that still hinders me in my academic progress, two years later. Upon respectfully confronting the third assessor I was offered neither an explanation nor a justification (perhaps I had been misled during the process of writing my thesis) for the feedback (which at times was completely erroneous as it contradicted published and peer reviewed literature I had consulted while while writing), and I was told that my thesis would just not be reasessed. I would not still be going on about this if it wasn't for the fact that I was just taught the findings of my thesis (which I was told was completely wrong) while studying for the master's degree that I did manage to get into with my grades. To sum up, while this faculty rigurously prepares students through content and theory, the students are nothing to them.

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Saxion - CMGT - Creative Media and Game Technologies - 2.5/5 TLDR: I only recommend the CMGT course to someone who is already disciplined to REALLY study the gaming topic they are interested in outside the dedicated time for the university. If you are looking for a course that makes you "game industry ready" look elsewhere. I finished the CMGT (Creative Media and Game Technologies) course as an artist in 2022. I went to Saxion (Enschede) with the dream of becoming a concept artist for video games (as advertised on the official website), after 4 years and €10000 dept I can say that I would have gotten the same knowledge out of top €1000 in relevant courses. A lot of the topics we went through are just "oh that's interesting to know, so when can I learn to draw concept art?". There was a lack of focus for artist in general (2D and 3D), you never get deep into any topic and most things except the bare basics are for you to learn in your own time. In addition, the amount of actual gaming projects is laughable for a course that advertises itself as gaming focused. But there were good things, even great things. The fellow students were very great partners and the teachers are knowledgeable and easy going. There is a very low focus on "memorize this and write it down" type test. 95% of the (art) grades are project based, meaning you create something (concepts, prototypes etc.) with other CMGT students (Other branches of CMGT are programmer and designer). Enschede itself is a great city to life in, with more than enough places to visit to fill the years with activities. In the last 2 years the students focus on larger projects, and for me, it was the case that the actual document that will be uploaded is much, much more important than the actual product we create. This was very frustrating because as an artist, I want to make things, not write documents all day. I would only recommend the CMGT to someone that is: 1) In need of a guided education about the basics of game making (equivalent of easy to get courses online) but more expensive of course 2) Interested in living in the Netherlands and experiencing the culture 3) Looking for an "easy" bachelor that can be obtained if you put in a bit of effort 4) A hardworking individual that does the bachelor on the side while advancing in their own domain of interest. Afterword: At the end of my study, I was so removed from what I actually wanted to learn that I could not advance professionally in the field I wanted to work in (concept art). Instead, I learned some things about UI design, which to be honest is a topic I really don't care about. **Important Note: The last 2 years of my studies were impacted by the covid pandemic.

The only reason I studied at the HKU conservatory was my main subject teacher and a few other teachers whom I found supportive and from whom I learned a lot. However, my overall experience was not pleasant. I think the way the school works is not effective or on the student's side at all. There are many staff members but for some reason, everything still seems to turn out disorganized. Also, the interaction is usually very unfriendly and there's zero empathy. For example, it is a slow process to get your credits after completing a course and in case you need a document from school for some other purpose, like for a student loan application, they might simply refuse to write you one. The student service desk replies to emails with delay (up to two weeks easily) and phone calls with them are unpleasant if you manage to get through. For an orchestra-oriented string player, the conservatory is not a good choice because they only have a string orchestra and therefore no opportunities for learning symphonic repertoire. The teaching is very heavily oriented towards music pedagogy instead of artistic development as an instrumentalist. In practice, this means that during the bachelor's program you have to teach students in years 2 and 3 and also follow a didactics course. In year 4 you are expected to write an educational dissertation. The curriculum does not focus on developing and deepening your main subject skills enough but instead forces you to follow mandatory side subjects such as choir and piano which consists of having weekly lessons for two years. If you are a violinist, in year 3 you have to attend viola lessons too. I don't see "trying a bit of everything" as a plus. I believe I would have benefited more if I had had more focus on the actual main subject. Such as longer main subject lessons, sonata workshop with an accompanist, music history for your specific instrument/instrument group, performance coaching, mental training, different chamber music projects, audition training and opportunities for playing in a symphony orchestra. It would be also great if the school would be able to offer orchestral internships or at least gigs so that instrumentalists would also gain professional experience in that field and not just from teaching. Another huge problem with the school is that even though all mandatory courses are offered in English, the mandatory teaching internship (Bachelor of Music year 2) is with Dutch-speaking children. I don't see you a student benefits from this kind of teaching experience when they don't even share the same language with their pupils. Practice facilities are very limited and the system does not work well. After graduation, the future does not look very bright for you if you don't speak Dutch. It is hard to find jobs in the music field in the Netherlands if you are from abroad. I would not recommend.

I already hold a bachelor’s degree from one of the top 100 universities in Europe, so I have a solid basis for comparison. And let me tell you—Rotterdam Business School (RBS) is, without a doubt, the lowest-level institution I have ever come across. Frankly, it’s embarrassing that they even call themselves a university because this place is a complete mess. After two years of frustration, I finally lost my patience and decided to leave and continue my marketing studies elsewhere. The problems began on day one. On September 1st, students still weren’t assigned to their actual classes. Instead, we were forced to participate in random “bonding activities” with people we wouldn’t even be studying with. The university blamed this on having to move buildings that year, but let’s be real—this level of disorganization is unacceptable. Then came the courses, which were painfully useless. They had us writing essays about ourselves for grades and attending mandatory “coaching” sessions where we had to answer personal questions about our families. I am 25 years old, a grown adult, yet I had to sit through these infantilizing sessions where refusing to answer personal questions was apparently unacceptable. And let’s talk about the complete lack of information. The school constantly forgets to communicate important details. A perfect example: RBS invited first-year students who earned all their credits to attend a ceremony and pick up their propedeuse diploma. What they failed to mention in the email was that you needed to bring an official ID document. I showed up with my driver’s license, and the teacher refused to give me my diploma, demanding I go home and get a “real document.” I told her I live far away and wouldn’t make it back in time, to which she scolded me. How is that my fault when the school didn’t bother to provide clear instructions? Despite my disappointment in year one, I held out hope that things would improve once I reached my marketing specialization. Well, that was a mistake. There is absolutely no difference between specializations—every student, regardless of what they choose, studies the same subjects, does the same assignments, and takes the same exams. What’s the point of choosing a specialization if the school doesn’t even bother to teach it properly? For the entire year, I had only one lecture per week related to my specialization. The rest of the time, I was drowning in pointless assignments like personality quizzes and cultural competence reflections. I learned how to make a LinkedIn page, write a CV, and roleplay a job interview with my groupmates—for a grade. Oh, and of course, there were more discussions on environmental dangers. Was this worth €250 a month? Absolutely not. Looking ahead, it’s clear things don’t get any better. Year three consists of either an exchange or an internship, and year four is another internship. It seems like this school will do anything to avoid actually teaching its students. On top of that, electives are constantly getting canceled at the last minute. I had an elective get canceled on the same day it was supposed to start. Since all the other courses were already full, I had to literally beg a teacher to let me into another one just so I could earn enough credits. The teachers at RBS are another major issue. Many are arrogant and clearly favor Dutch students. During one of my recent exams, the supervisor refused to give instructions in English. When my class president pointed out that most students were international, she just continued speaking Dutch. Then, when a classmate asked if she could leave early if she finished her exam, the supervisor sarcastically asked, “Do you really think you’re that smart?” That level of unprofessionalism is just shocking. Some teachers even force students to buy their own books, blatantly saying, “If you don’t buy this book, you won’t pass the exam.” There are no clear grading guidelines, so your grade often depends on the teacher’s mood rather than your actual work. And if you fail an exam? Good luck figuring out what went wrong—many teachers don’t even bother writing feedback. There is one particular teacher I know of who has received numerous complaints from students, yet nothing has been done about it. He continues to teach as if nothing ever happened, and the university simply ignores the issues. To make matters worse, exams are full of mistakes. Whoever creates them clearly doesn’t double-check their work, so students often have to waste time figuring out what was actually meant. It’s frustrating when you’re sitting in an exam, already under pressure, and you find errors in the questions themselves. Rotterdam Business School is an absolute joke. If you want to do middle-school-level assignments and waste your time, go ahead and join. But if you actually want to become a specialist in your field, do yourself a favor and look elsewhere.