Growth at the University of Groningen stabilizes

On 28 October 2019, 32,765 students were enrolled at the University of Groningen in a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree programme. This is an increase of 2.4% compared to 2018. The growth in student numbers is clearly starting to stabilize; in 2018 the UG grew by 4.6% compared to 2017 . Degree programmes at the Faculties of Science and Engineering, Law, and Spatial Sciences are particularly popular. The relatively new faculty Campus Fryslân in Leeuwarden has grown to 106 students.

Two weeks ago the VSNU (Association of Universities in the Netherlands) announced that, for the 2019-2020 academic year, more than 300,000 Bachelor’s and Master’s students are enrolled at Dutch universities – which is a national first. This represents a nationwide increase of approximately 4% compared to the previous academic year.

Increase in the number of Master’s students

5,619 new students registered for the propaedeutic phase, 1,029 for the pre-Master and 4,007 new students registered for the Master’s phase. Since 2009, there has been a steady increase in the number of Master's students at the UG: for the 2019-2020 academic year, this number has crept over 10,200.
The programmes which have had the biggest increase in the total number of students are the Bachelor’s degrees in Business, Computing Science and Biomolecular Sciences. Degree programmes that have experienced a relatively much higher intake are the Bachelor Global Responsibility & Leadership, the Master Sustainable Entrepreneurship and the Executive MBA.

International students from over 120 countries

2,595 new international students have registered for the 2019-2020 academic year. In total, 7,683 students from more than 120 countries are now studying at the UG, 23.4% (was 22.8%) of the total number of registered students. The University College Groningen, Campus Fryslân and the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences are the most popular among international students. 2,274 of the more than 7,600 international students are German; this number has not increased compared to last year. Germany is followed by Romania (445) in second place, then the United Kingdom (441), Italy (405), China (353), Greece, France, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Spain, Ireland and India (all with more than 150 students).

Fixed quotas

There are fewer new Dutch propaedeutic students at the UG this year than there were in 2018 (-187); this year’s level is around the same as it was in 2017. This can be attributed to additional numerus fixus (fixed quota) programmes: there are six this year, compared to three in 2018. The Psychology and International Business degree programmes, which were hugely popular in 2018, have both introduced fixed quotas for the current academic year. This also affected the German influx.

Male to female ratio

The male to female student ratio has changed slightly compared to 2017 and 2018. There are currently slightly more women (52.5%) than men at the University of Groningen. This is especially the case for the first registrations (54.4%). The percentage of female students is higher among international students than among Dutch students.