University colleges are immensely popular

The popularity of University Colleges for excellent students is growing rapidly. In five years time, the number of applicants has increased up to 3000. Most Dutch universities are developing such a program, where students perform to the best of their abilities. Tilburg University has one already: Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The ‘centers of excellence’ offer a broad, English spoken study program to an international group of students. Students can pick their own subjects from a list of up to 200 options. The main goal is to introduce students to a range of scientific fields. The small groups and intensive guidance have already resulted in small drop-out rates.

Hogwarts
The programs are usually twice as expensive as the statutory tuition of 1906 euros. Comfortable housing is included in the extra costs. Professor Hans Adriaansens started the first one, in Utrecht, in 1998. After that, he also was the founding father of the University College in Middelburg, which de Volkskrant (a Dutch newspaper) already compared to Harry Potter’s Hogwarts. Adriaansens is happy with the success of the concept. “Students should be challenged. Universities have underestimated the need for that.” According to him, the value of University Colleges is in the personal approach. “At traditional universities, students are anonymous, there is little personal attention. If you create the right circumstances, students want to do more and are able to do more.”

Perhaps even more important: you don’t have to make important life decisions at the age of seventeen. “During the course of three years, you slowly ‘zoom in’ until you find out where your interests are. This partially explains why the drop-out rates are so much lower.”

This all sounds nice, but critics warn that University Colleges could get elitist. “It is good that universities strive for excellent education,” says Member of Parliament Jasper van Dijk (Socialist Party). “But University colleges select on money instead of talent.” He also fears a separation: students that don’t stand out immediately could disappear into the masses.

LAS
Dean Alkeline van Lenning from Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) understands why University Colleges are so popular: “Partially, it is a protest against the large scale of universities. It is a renewed focus on quality.” She thinks it is wrong that some people don’t count LAS as a University College. “We don’t offer housing, but Maastricht does not do that as well and they are regarded as one.”

Liberal Arts and Sciences starts with 90 students this year. This means that it has not grown since last year. Van Lenning does not think that is a problem: “We live up to the promise of a personal approach. Professors, students, everybody knows each other. This is essential, because half of our student population comes from abroad. This distinguishes us, at other schools the international part is smaller.” If it grows to fast, the personal approach could be in danger. “In Amsterdam, it is starting to look like large-scale education again.”

Van Lenning does not share the fear of elitism: “We are not residential, so LAS is an integral part of Tilburg University. Professors that teach our classes, are also connected to other schools in TiU. We are also affordable: we do not double the prizes.”