The results of both surveys appeared last week, at the opening of the national Study Fair in Utrecht. In the ranking in the Keuzegids the UT makes a substantial leap from fifth to first place. With an average mark of 7.26 Tilburg University (7.23) was just beaten.
The trump cards for Enschede and Tilburg are, as they are for number four Eindhoven, the ultramodern educational facilities, the Keuzegids writes. Moreover, the sports facilities in Twente are the best according to the survey, and Twente scores second place in the section 'rooms on offer'.
The editorial board of the Keuzegids presented ten-thousand students with some thirty questions on quality of education, organisation of education, and facilities. The UT owes the first place to good scores on all subjects. The students gave the highest marks to eight Twente programmes: Educational Science and Technology, Civil Engineering and Management, Communication Studies, Computer Science, Chemical Technology, Electrical Engineering and Civil Engineering.
The strong points of the leaders Twente, Tilburg and Maastricht illustrate a number of trends in scientific education as pointed out by the Keuzegids: the student wants modern educational methods with attention to independence and teachers who are more a guide and director than a classical narrator.
Smaller institutes turn out to be able to make the necessary switch quicker than the traditional universities with their mass programmes and their less innovative staff. Institutes in the Randstad also have the disadvantage of the difficulties student face in obtaining student housing, as well as usually older buildings with less modern facilities in for example ICT.
For its supplement 'the best studies', the weekly magazine Elsevier put fifty questions and statements to a few thousand respondents. According to Elsevier the judgement of students and professors is surprisingly well matched. Utrecht is the best general university according to the professors whom Elsevier asked to 'score' their field, the so-called faculty rating. In the category universities with comparisons of twenty to thirty programmes at any rate. In the comparison of the UT with the two technical universities in Delft and Eindhoven, Twente scores the best, according to the professors polled. Delft is second and Eindhoven third, which has turned the ranking of last year upside down. In this professorial ranking theUT gets a total of five first places, among them for Educational Science and Technology and Public Policy and Public Administration.
