November 5, 2023
Dutch versus Swedish Universities
Hi again!
I’m back this week with a blog post where I’ll talk about the differences between Dutch and Swedish universities/+student life.
I did my Bachelor’s at Wageningen University, in the Netherlands. It is a big University in a very (very!) small town, in the middle of the Netherlands. The university is well-known for its focus on ‘healthy food and living environment’ and sustainability. The university was established first in 1876 as an agricultural college. In 1918 it was officially recognized as a public university. So, it is quite a bit older than Linköping University, which was established in 1975. So, as I said, it is a big University in the small town of Wageningen. Wageningen has around 40.000 inhabitants of whom 13.700 are students. The town is located in the middle of the Netherlands, in a very green area next to the Rhine. The nature around Wageningen is something I very much enjoyed. There are a lot of biking paths, forests, and places to swim. As the town is super small, you are never more than a 10-minute bike ride away from nature, the university, or your friends. The town itself is quite cute, it has a large church in the middle with a marketplace around it and some cute cafes and restaurants. There is also a cinema, a theater, and an ice cream shop. So, Wageningen has everything a student needs, but also not really more than the basics.
I did really enjoy my time studying at Wageningen University. I was mostly here to write my thesis, so I did not have many classes anymore. However, the classes we did have were definitely demanding and time-consuming. Comparing this to the Master’s program I am doing now (in Sustainable Development), I had a lot more lectures and classes in general that I needed to attend (although almost nothing was mandatory). However, most of my time was spent in the library by myself, working on my thesis. One thing that was also fairly surprising to me is how loud it is in the Studenthuset library at LiU. Here, the space is mainly used for group work and it is not a silent library. In Wageningen, the library was definitely super quiet, and you were also not allowed to eat in there. The number of green spaces in and around the University is quite similar between Wageningen University and Linköping University I would say. As Wageningen is a University with a lot of sustainability and “green” programs, it has a lot of plants and even small rivers in the buildings. However, the outdoor space mostly consists of lawns and statues. In Linköping, there is less nature within the buildings, but more exciting nature directly next to the university (for example, Vallaskogen and the university park).
A difference that a Swedish University would have with, for example, a German University but not with a Dutch one is a hierarchy. Just like here in Sweden, we call our professors by their first name and we don’t make a big fuss about hierarchy. The professors are also often very open to feedback and reflection. However, a difference that I did notice was the amount of group work and classes. In the Netherlands, I was used to doing group work but not to the extent we do here now in Sweden. In Sweden, they do love group work ;). Also, in my Master’s program now, I only have one class at a time, which lasts for 5 weeks. In the Netherlands, I used to have 3-4 courses at a time which would last for the whole semester.
So, I would say that there are some bigger differences between a University in the Netherlands and in Sweden, but they are nothing major. I got used to the Swedish University system fairly quickly because of this!
If you have any more questions about studying in the Netherlands or in Sweden, feel free to ask me anything!
/ Fleur, Master of Science for Sustainable Development
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