UvA climbs Elsevier magazine Best Studies rankings

The Dutch weekly news magazine Elsevier recently published its annual comparison of popular Bachelor’s and Master’s study programmes at Dutch universities and universities of applied sciences under the title De beste studies ("The best studies").

Approximately 150.000 students and 2.500 professors and senior university lecturers assessed a large number of BA and MA programmes. In the overall rankings by professors, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) came second with 19% of the votes. Last year, the UvA was ranked fourth with 8% of the votes.

Seven UvA study programmes ranked 1st

In the rankings by study programme, the UvA was placed 1st seven times. Earth Sciences and Mathematics at the UvA came first in the student rankings with an average mark of 7,1 and 7,4 respectively.

Professors adjudged the UvA as the number one university for Communication Science, Cultural Anthropology, Psychology, Physics, Astronomy and General Linguistics. Communication Science and Psychology occupied the top spot once again, having been ranked first by professors in 2009 and 2010.

Students rated their study programmes on the basis of different criteria grouped into six categories: facilities, study programme organisation, teaching, lecturers, testing, and organisation and communication. Traditionally, there is very little difference between the marks students give to the various study programmes at the Dutch universities. All the UvA study programmes scored on average between 6,5 and 7,4.

Source: Universiy of Amsterdam