About Dutch students & teachers

Many aspects of Dutch culture may be different from your own. For example, Dutch people find it very important to be on time, and will offer you coffee and cookies when visiting but do not expected you to stay for dinner (unless explicitly invited). Several other common cultural differences are discussed here.

Independence

Because you are seen as an independent student, teachers will inform you of the material to learn but leave the specific planning up to you. Assignments might come with few instructions and will leave space to choose your own approach.

Your Own Opinions

‘Having your own opinion’ and ‘being critical’ are important values for Dutch people. Students do not need to master all existing knowledge before formulating their own opinion. When writing a paper, summarizing information from other authors will not be sufficient. You will have to make your own selection of available sources, develop your own line of thinking and include your own conclusions and/or recommendations.

Rules Are Rules

Dutch society runs on rules: individual exceptions are rare. Trying to get a higher mark or request an additional re-exam will easily irritate your teacher. The same rules apply to all and aim to guarantee fair and equal treatment of everyone.

Relative Lack Of Competition

Competition hardly plays a role in Dutch educational culture: students are seldom graded against each other. The teacher sets a minimum score and passes all students that meet this criterion. Dutch students are usually not very interested how they rank in class; they are mainly concerned with passing the course. Students striving to be the best will not talk about it as it is not done in the Netherlands to be too competitive or work too hard.

Mimi (Mexico): "I had such a great time in the Netherlands; it was full of great moments".

Intercultural Friendships

Because of these cultural differences, Dutch students might think of international students as passive, easily offended students who only memorize and reproduce study material while not saying what they really think. International students might see the Dutch students as noisy in class, disrespectful to teachers and classmates, showing off, lazy and negative. It is a challenge for everyone in international classrooms to overcome these prejudices and become friends.

Brutal Honesty

Honesty is highly valued in the Dutch communication style: avoiding loosing face plays a less important role. As Dutch society is quite individualistic, Dutch students prefer to show the class how critical they are, rather than strive to being loyal classmates.

The Dutch eagerness for group discussions and strong opinions might make your first presentation a difficult experience. Keep in mind that if a professor or fellow student 'burns' your ideas in public, it's nothing personal. Likewise, you are expected to have a critical mindset, so questioning your fellow students, professors and people in senior positions on study-related issues is encouraged.