Elsevier magazine has once again assessed popular courses at Dutch universities this year. Over 140,000 students and 2,450 professors (and university lecturers) passed judgement on 47 study progammes in total. In the opinion of professors, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) takes first place nationwide in the fields of Communication Science and Psychology. These study programmes also occupied first place according to professors in 2009. Biology at the UvA also came first according to student assessments (tied with Wageningen University). In terms of the professorial assessment of universities overall, the UvA dropped one place to fourth position with 8% of the votes.

UvA study programmes more than satisfactory

Students assessed their study programmes based on 25 criteria in six main categories: facilities, organisation of the study programme, quality of education, teachers, testing, and internal organisation and communication. The marks students gave to the study programmes differed comparatively little in general. All UvA study programmes scored satisfactorily or, in most cases, more than satisfactorily. The highest rated UvA courses are Biology and Mathematics which both averaged a score of 7.3. The students were especially pleased with the teachers. Notarial law is the lowest rated UvA study programme with an average score of 6.5.

Elsevier also looked at the Dutch University Colleges. Amsterdam University College took fourth place in the student assessment, with an average score of 7.1.

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