Utrecht University - UU vs Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences - HRO vs HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht vs Tilburg University vs TIAS School for Business and Society
Side-by-side comparison from 174 verified student reviews. Scan one row at a time — winners are highlighted
- +High quality education and independent thinking encouragement
- +Broad course selection and academic freedom
- +Insightful and practical courses useful for future careers
- +Practical, real-world learning experiences and industry focus
- +International environment and diverse student body
- +Flexible learning paths and knowledgeable instructors
- +Practical focus and real-world application
- +Experienced lecturers and international outlook
- +Opportunities for internships abroad
- +Excellent professors and specialized programs
- +Inclusive and diverse environment with international peers
- +Strong analytical skill development and practical learning opportunities
- +Personal assistance and welcoming atmosphere
- +Engaging professors and insightful discussions
- +Practical, career-oriented curriculum and useful course content
- +Supportive and friendly teachers providing concrete feedback
- +Welcoming international environment and comfortable study spaces
- +Excellent instructors and learning environment
- +Practical, real-world skills development
- +Supportive campus community and student life
- -Administrative and communication issues are a major concern.
- -Lack of teacher and supervisor support negatively impacts the learning experience.
- -The environment is perceived as stressful and lacking in positive support.
- -Students dislike outdated facilities and poorly maintained infrastructure.
- -Many students express frustration with disorganized administrative processes and unresponsive management.
- -Course content and teaching methods are often perceived as irrelevant or not engaging.
- -Outdated facilities and a lack of resources are a frequent complaint.
- -Inconsistent teaching quality and unhelpful instructors are a major concern.
- -Administrative and communication problems create significant frustration for students.
- -Disorganized administration and lack of student guidance.
- -Poor teacher support and patronizing interactions.
- -High cost of living and unpleasant city environment.
- -Administrative and management issues cause significant frustration.
- -Outdated facilities and technology impede learning and comfort.
- -Lack of clear communication and support from staff is a recurring problem.
- -Administrative and management issues are a frequent source of frustration.
- -Outdated facilities and a lack of necessary resources are consistently criticized.
- -The curriculum is perceived as irrelevant or poorly implemented by many students.
- -Administrative and management issues lead to disorganization and inefficiency.
- -Unfriendly staff interactions and lack of empathy create an unpleasant environment.
Student feedback reveals a generally strong university experience. Location and Student Life stand out as the highest-rated aspects, both exceeding 4.25. Internationality and Value also received excellent scores, around 4.2. Facilities and Professors are rated well, though slightly lower than the top areas. Accomodation is the weakest point, scoring significantly lower than other categories.
This institution garners strong acclaim for its **Facilities**, **Location**, and **Internationality**, all scoring an impressive 4.67. Student life also receives a favorable 4.33. The university offers good value at 4.5 and a respectable 4 for its professors. Its weakest area, however, is **Accomodation**, with a rating of 3.25.
This university scores exceptionally well in academic-related areas, with Professors and Facilities receiving the highest marks at 4.67 and 4.56 respectively. Student Life and Internationality are also strong. The weakest area identified is Accomodation, which received a rating of 3.56. Overall, the university demonstrates a solid reputation across most aspects.
This institution garners excellent marks for its **Facilities** and **Internationality**, both scoring a high 4.22. **Professors** are also highly regarded at 4.14, with **Student Life** and **Value** receiving solid ratings of 4.06 and 4.08 respectively. **Location** is rated moderately well at 3.83. The weakest area identified is **Accomodation**, which received a notably lower score of 2.78.
Across the surveyed categories, this institution excels in its **facilities, professors, location, internationality, and perceived value**, all receiving perfect scores. In contrast, areas for development appear to be **student life and accommodation**, with significantly lower ratings in these aspects.
This institution demonstrates significant strengths in internationality, earning a rating of 4.42, and excels in facilities and value, both scoring 4.33. Student life is rated 3.67, slightly above the professor rating of 3.58. The weakest area identified is accommodation, with a score of 3.
Performance in this university's survey reveals a stark contrast between its strengths and weaknesses. The standout area is undeniably **location**, receiving a perfect score. Conversely, **facilities** and **value** represent the weakest points, both scoring a low 1. Other areas like professors, student life, accommodation, and internationality fall within the mid-range, suggesting room for improvement across several facets of the student experience.
Approximately 98.3% of feedback is positive, highlighting high-quality education, independent thinking, and freedom in course selection. A small portion of feedback mentions disorganization and lack of guidance.
All 6 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.5/5. Students praise the real-world learning, hands-on projects, internships, and international environment. Some minor suggestions include more structured courses and improved communication.
Around ~63% of 27 reviews highlight positive experiences, praising practical learning and experienced lecturers. No negative reviews were recorded.
The university receives overwhelmingly positive feedback, with ~92% of reviews rating it 4-5 stars. Students praise excellent teaching, expert professors, and strong program specialization. A small percentage of negative reviews mention disorganization and limited guidance.
With one review, the average rating is 5/5. This suggests a highly positive experience, with feedback praising personal assistance and engaging professors. No negative feedback was reported.
~74% of reviews are positive, highlighting practical learning and supportive teachers. Some mention occasional disorganization and a chaotic online platform. No negative reviews were received.
With an average rating of 2.33/5, feedback indicates some positive experiences with individual teachers. However, approximately 33% of reviews highlight dissatisfaction with the university's organizational effectiveness and a lack of empathetic, friendly staff interactions.
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.
Studying International Business we moved to a new building in my third year of University. The new building is amazing and has an encouraging atmosphere. I am constantly surrounded by different cultures and encouraged to meet new people. I was able to design my own learning path, choose topics I was interested in, and study abroad. The course could be a little more structured and I think the university could work on its communication sometimes, but overall I am really satisfied with my decision.
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.
