University of Groningen, The Netherlands

lopppy

Hi,

Does anyone have any experience of the University of Groningen, studying in Holland or indeed the city of Groningen

I have the chance to study there as part of my commerce degree, not sure what to do!

Thanks for any info

09627685

hey i'm planning on going to Groningen next year to study law, just wondering if u went in the end and if u so could u tell me how it went for you? Any advice?

elefant

I studied English and Law there last year, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

The university is really nice. There's a really big selection of courses you can choose from which I found refreshing after 2 years of being told do this, this and this by NUIG. The classes are also nice and small so there's more interaction with lecturers, and you retain what you learn better (this might not be preferable for everyone I know, but I found it a great change from just falling asleep in huge lecture halls ).

The city is also great. It's reasonably small (I would say smaller than Galway but with a bigger population), but a real university city. I think something like 25% of the population are students, so the nightlife is great, and it's really easy to get around because everyone cycles. Everything is really central too.

It's also great for international students. The ESN organisation organise loads of event for internationals, and there are huge international students houses where you can live with hundreds of other foreign students. It's a great experience.

I'm going back to the Netherlands to do my master's there in September, so I guess that's endorsement enough for the experience I had over yonder!

09627685

Thanks a million, it sounds great. My only worry at the moment is the cost, i hear the year can get really expensive. i intend on travelling now and again but not every weekend and dont want to be living on the breadline but the amount of money i will have access to is pretty limited. Any advice on living expenses, the university's website seems to estimate the cost at around 7-8k for the year including accom., that about right?

elefant

I don't know how much it cost in total, and I can't remember what I got for the erasmus grant, but it was a fair amount.

My accommodation was 355 a month, but I was in one of the more expensive student houses (winschoterdiep, I recommend staying here if you can, it's excellent and unbelievable craic).

The cost of living was much lower than in Ireland I found. No transport costs once you get a bike, dinners can be done very cheap if you cook with some of your neighbours in your house and you can go out 3 times a week for the price of one night in Ireland. There's a big supermarket near winschoterdiep called Jumbo (right beside the FC Groningen football stadium too) where you can get groceries for cheap. Clothes, for example, can be expensive though.

Travel:
You can get trains to everywhere in Holland. Their rail services make ours look embarrassing. If there's a group of internationals you can buy a discount ticket thing that will save you 40% per ticket for up to 4 people a journey I think, or if you travel with a Dutch student you can get a discount as their +1 (they get free transport everywhere!!!).
If you wanna go further afield, Ryanair fly from Eindhoven and Bremen (Germany). Both are around 3 hours from Grunn. A tip is to utilise the fact there are two equally near airports to try and fly for cheap. I went to Alghero in Sardinia, and though I flew to the island from Eindhoven, I flew home via Memmingem, Bremen and then got a train back to Groningen. This meant I got home for ~€10 I think!

Hope that helps.

Ashiya

Hi, I am aware that this is an old thread but I figure why not bump it for the people that might find it helpful.
I am a student at this university and cna offer some insight into Medicine and Psychology here.
There's a few things that you need to be aware of before coming here.

1) Mind what degree you pick!
Medicine:
PROS
-The class really is quite international, and not having many students (bit less than 100 for the English programme) makes it very close-knit. This makes a huge difference.
-the city is awesome, still small enough for people to care that you are there (unlike the busy London), but still enough of a city to provide you with lots of fun and parties.
-You really feel a sense of accomplishment as you monitor your progress over the years.
-There is no such thing as, for example, a whole block of histology. Every block is kind of a mix and match based on different bodily systems (for example, "Motions and senses" incorporates everything to do with that). This makes it easier to digest since you are not looking in the same book everytime

CONS
-Some of the lecturers' English sucks. I have not had that many problems, but the thing is that the programme runs almost parallelly to the Dutch cohort, and as a result some lecturers are too damn lazy to change some of their lecture slides into english. Thankfully this only happened 10-20% of the time but it is still annoying.
-For many blocks (here, the year is organized into 4 blocks rather than semesters), the organization left much to be desired. It happened at least 5-6 times this year that a lecturer just didn't show, that a practical was cancelled last-minute (like 15 mins before, sometimes not even a proper notice was given). It also depends on who your coordinator is for that block, however, as these change every time.
-They are very inconsiderate with Christmas holidays. This year, we had an exam on the 23rd, not taking the international students having to travel into account at all. This feedback was give many times but they just don't care and this is perhaps what I dislike the most about this place.
-Be AWARE that the masters for Medicine here is in Dutch so you will need to start classes early!

WARNING if you are going to do medicine, you might be overwhelmed by the amount of work you are expected to do. For each block you get learning questions and chapters to read. The worst block this year had 55 chapters to do in 6 weeks (normally, you have 8 weeks for a block but a research project made this shorter) which takes a LOT of time.
Also the system is not rote-based at all and if you don't understand the material you are going to find the exams challenging. It took me a lot of getting used to. But, this problem-based approach they use here makes it alot more interactive and fun.

Now, for psychology. basically much of the above applies, EXCEPT I have a warning if you want to study this!! Please don't see this as racist, because it is not - but 95% of the class in Psychology is German!! Normally this would not be a problem but they spoke German ALL the time and refused to speak English outside of the classroom, leaving you to feel completely isolated. To be honest because of this I would not recommend coming here for Psychology unless you A) speak german, find your social contacts elsewhere. Of course if you have students that are willing to speak english that would be nice but the truth is it is just easier for them to speak their native language, so they do so.

2) When you come to the Netherlands you need what they call a Sofi number, and do your application through a site called Studielink. To get a room in Groningen you need to register in the gemeente first. You should organise this well on forehand if you can.

I hope this is useful to someone.