Higher Education in The Netherlands

[smithy]

Hi all,

My girlfriend and I were chatting today about what foreign countries were on our "list" of places we'd like to live. We eventually settled upon The Netherlands as a place that was interesting to us - for a variety of reasons.

I'm in college (for computer science) right now in the US; so, I'd be looking into transferring to a school over there to finish up my degree. I've only just begun to research the possibilities. I spent a couple of hours surfing around on google and managed to find a few things, but I think it would be a better use of my time to conduct some focused research.

So, based on the fact that I have very little knowledge about higher education in the Netherlands (and Europe in general), I'm hoping that someone here could point me in the right direction.

This will probably end up being nothing more than a mental exercise, but the topic has grabbed a hold of my curiosity (sp?).

Personal experiences would be greatly appreciated as would any information. :)

Thanks,

Smithy

[DeeBye]

I'm a Canadian who has visited Holland a few times. Both my parents were born there and I have a lot of relatives living there.

I don't know jack about the schooling system, but I can say that Holland is a nice place to visit. I did have a hard time when one guy thought I was American, but as soon as I proved I was Canadian it was smooth sailing.

[smithy]

I'll make sure to hide my "ignorant American" card then. :)

On a side note, I always feel wierd saying Holland and not The Netherlands.... don't know why.

Smithy

[DeeBye]

I'll make sure to hide my "ignorant American" card then.  :)

Naw, I don't think you have to go that far. Dutch people are really quite friendly towards outsiders. I had a blast while I was there, and most (90%?) of the people assumed I was American because of my accent. They were still more than willing to buy me beer and play darts with me.

[Lord_Olf]

Hail Smithy,

I can't tell you about Holland/ The Netherlands in particular, but some general advice:

Here in Germany, you even can run into trouble if you change universities. Some test or other things may not be credited by another University. Example: Two friends of mine stopped studying Japanese here in Cologne after six semesters and went to Bonn university to study the same subject. Effect: Go back to square one, start over, no credit given at all.

My point is: If things should really get "serious" for you, make sure that you get into contact with the university you're looking at and make sure you get credit for your work already done, as this might actually vary and make another university not considered by you a better choice.

Take care,
Lord_Olf

[kandrathe]

If you plan on working while there, you might want to also check into the employment laws. In France, for instance I know that you must work there for an entire year in order to not have your income subject to both French and American taxes. Many EU countries have very high taxes to pay for social benefits that are only for citizens.

[[wcip]Angel]

But do they speak English in Holland? Isn't it like Germany, France and Italy where you're taught English very late in school, and thus very few people have proper (or any) command of it?

[kandrathe]

My experiences are that in the cities and with younger people, their English is quite fluent. When you get out into the countryside, and when speaking with older people then Dutch is required. Dutch is pretty easy to learn for either English or German speakers as it seems a meld of the two. I have a close friend from South Africa, for whom I'm learning (slowly) Afrikaans (which is an older dialect of Dutch).

[Assur]

Angel,Mar 29 2004, 08:44 PM]But do they speak English in Holland? Isn't it like Germany, France and Italy where you're taught English very late in school, and thus very few people have proper (or any) command of it?

Hi

In Germany you start with English in 5th grade, I wouldn't call that late. In the German state where I live they are now starting kids with English in 1. grade except for those poor kids living along the Rhine, they have to start with French.

On the other hand I learned my English at a boarding school and was fluent when I returned to Germany, so I can't say how good people really are after they've finished school.

good karma

[Flaming June]

It is nice to see you again. :)

[eppie]

Angel,Mar 29 2004, 08:44 PM]But do they speak English in Holland? Isn't it like Germany, France and Italy where you're taught English very late in school, and thus very few people have proper (or any) command of it?

Oooh men how much misunderstanding!!!! :D We speak dutch!!!
Okay form a dutch guy then.
Especially in spoken english, we the dutch, tend to believe we are the most fluent speakers, of all countries (where english is not the official language of course). It is because a lot of foreigners in our country (english speakers, germans, french, just speak there own language and we just try to speak that as well, if we however visit other countries ourselves we always try to speak the language of that country) I guess this is because we are such a small country (we also don't have a dutch version of diablo2), I think the same will apply for countries like denmark, norway and sweden.

I don't know if it's true but you will at least not have a lot of troubles here, especially not with younger people.

Further you (the topic starter I mean, not [wcip]angel). say you do something with computer science. And you want to do a Ph.D over here in Holland or do you want to graduate here?

The normal undergraduate education is, since a few years, also divided in Bachelors en Masters degrees like it is in the US. I personally liked more the way it was before....but probably I'm not objective and a bit conservative in these things :rolleyes: Anyway, because it is now more or less the same it might be easy for you to do you graduation research over here.

Anyway, universities you want to look for are Delft, Twente, Eindhoven, which are all "technical" universities were they don't teach things like law and economics, but more things like physics, chemistry, electronics, computers science, mathematics. Check for homepages like TUdelft.nl or utwente.nl or tue.nl. (googling is also fine of course.)
Then there are the "normal" (traditinonal) universities like Utrecht, Amsterdam (2), Groningen, Leiden. (these are the bigger once which I think will have a computer science faculty or groups. (there are a few more U's)

The level of the universities is in general high here. Especially in research but also in education. I'm sure you can contact somebody at a University here (the webpages are also in english so it's easy to find the right people). Or if you have a professor over there for sure he will know some dutch colleagues whom he can recommend.

[Lord_Olf]

Hail [wcip]Angel,

I think you would be surprised as to the quality of English spoken here in Germany. As Assur said, language education in Germany doesn't start that late, and you will at the very least be able to get directions and things like that. This doesn't go for older people, but I'd say you would have nary a problem talking to people younger than, say, 40 years of age.

I think the same goes for the Netherlands. Though not knowing that much of the education system in the Netherlands, I think it is pretty good, judging from the Dutch people I've met so far.

France and Italy might be a bit of a problem, language-wise, but I think that you won't run into too many problems even there, especially taking into account that at the university, you'll have a peer group of rather well educated people.

Take care,

Lord_Olf

[[wcip]Angel]

But they still do dub films and tv-series from the US in Germany, right?

What I don't understand is, if people can speak English why is the official language on b.net Europe German?

[WarLocke]

I'm a Canadian who has visited Holland a few times.

Oh, so you're a Canadian? Well, that explains everything then...

[Assur]

Angel,Mar 30 2004, 10:25 AM]But they still do dub films and tv-series from the US in Germany, right?

What I don't understand is, if people can speak English why is the official language on b.net Europe German?

Hi

Yes, they still dub the films. English is spoken/understood better then before, but of course 99% of the people who speak English still are better/more fluent in German and since the Germanspeaking market is big enough it pays to dub films.

As regards b.net, German is the second biggest language in in Europe, after Russian, spoken as a first language, and since Blizz sells more games in Germany than it does in Russia, we rule :rolleyes:

[smithy]

Thanks for all the info guys. It is greatly appreciated.

Hey, flaming_june.

It's hard for me to get on the Internet these days as my computer is horribly broken.

Again, thanks for the info.

Smithy