The University of Twente has won more ‘medals’ than any other technical university in the new Olympic-style ranking just published by science weekly Elsevier. The Elsevier ranking, based on figures for the past three years, awards UT degree programmes no fewer than fourteen medals.
National Student Survey
Each year, in the National Student Survey, Elsevier and research agency ResearchNed join forces to discover what students themselves regard as the best degree programmes in Dutch higher education. But this year, Elsevier has also decided to look back at the results of the past three years.
Medal table
The magazine’s ranking gives medals to university degree programmes that have performed well in the National Student Survey over the last three years. A programme deserves a medal if it has scored well above average in each of the last three years and achieved one of the highest student satisfaction scores among comparable programmes in at least one of those years.
The number of years a programme is ranked among the best determines the colour of the medal they receive. One year is good for bronze and two years for silver, while the gold goes to a programme that has remained at the top for all three years. The Elsevier method results in a medal table in the spirit of the Olympic Games.
Gold-medal programmes
The University of Twente performed wonderfully well on that medal table. With fourteen medals (five of them gold), UT can rightfully call itself the best technical university in the Netherlands. The UT’s five gold medal winners are the Bachelor’s programmes in Chemical Science & Engineering (CSE) and Applied Physics (TN) and the Master’s programmes in Applied Physics (AP), Chemical Engineering (ChE) and Technical Medicine (TM).
The students evaluate their study programmes in seven different categories. They rate the facilities on offer, the education provided, how the programme is structured, the teaching staff, assessment, organization and communication, in addition to giving an overall evaluation.
CSE and ChE students are especially satisfied with the staff who teach them: 87% and 89% of students, respectively, expressed their satisfaction with this aspect of their programme. With 80% of students satisfied, the TM programme scores well on education provided. The AP programme ranks among the very best. With a satisfaction score of 87% among its students, it is riding high and well above the national average of 74%.
Rector’s response
UT’s Rector Magnificus Thom Palstra couldn’t be prouder: ‘Of course, I am proud that UT has emerged as the country’s leading technical university. These fourteen medals confirm that the quality of our education is outstanding. But there is still work to be done. We plan to take a look at each and every programme to see what it takes to score above the national average across the board, with the aim of winning even more gold medals.’
