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Trends in the National Student Survey of the Netherlands

Heavy study programme - happy students!

Leiden, july 14th - Laziness does not make students happy. That is one of the principal conclusions in a new report about trends and patterns in ten years National Student Survey in the Netherlands (NSS). The study shows that student satisfaction is highest in those disciplines where course programmes are intensive and free time is relatively sparse. Also, small scale education and frequent contact with teachers have a positive effect.

The report “Student satisfaction in the Netherlands - Ten years of patterns and trends” shows the development of student satisfaction in twenty-nine disciplines from 1996 to 2005. At first sight, the report would only seem of interest to education administrators and policy makers in the Netherlands. But the significance of this study goes beyond national borders. Therefore, the original Dutch version is now published in English.

One factor that makes the report interesting for a broader audience is the unique scale and continuity of the operation on which it is based. Started in 1996 as one of the first comprehensive national surveys on student satisfaction in higher education, the NSS has continued every year since. From 1996 to 2005, around 150.000 bachelor students were interviewed for the NSS. The trend report summarises students’ judgements, which were given on a ten-point scale and on ten different quality dimensions. Also, as a context for interpretation, information is given about student numbers per course, about job prospects of graduates and about the average number of study hours per week - as reported by students themselves.

For each discipline, the report pictures a quality profile. This is done literally, through informative radar diagrams. The results are not only meaningful in the Dutch context: everyone who is familiar with the subcultures in different sectors of higher education will find striking parallels with patterns in his or her own country. For example:

  • In economics, we see massive student numbers, rather low effort and motivation and meagre scores on almost all aspects of education quality. About their career preparation students are quite satisfied, but overall satisfaction is low. See figure 1:
  • In natural sciences, students appear to work much harder. They even say their programme is somewhat too heavy. But this is more than compensated by positive scores on all other quality aspects. See figure 2:



Still, some patterns shown in the report are more typically Dutch. One issue is the dichotomy between academic universities and ‘professional’ universities. The latter have grown enormously over the last twenty years. The report shows that education quality in this sector has come under pressure recently. In 1996 the average score for student satisfaction was only 0.1 lower than in academic universities, but ten years later the gap has grown to 0.3 – statistically is a very significant difference, giving te large sample size.

The report also gives scores for different qualities of university cities. The results can be of interest to anyone planning to work or study in the Netherlands. Amsterdam, the capital, delivers high scores on nightlife but pays for this with expensive student housing and meagre sports facilities. Other cities, like Groningen, get better scores overall.

Finally, the authors look for broad relations between student satisfaction and background factors. They show that the most demanding programmes on average get the highest satisfaction scores. With this convincing conclusion, the report puts an end to a long living myth in Dutch higher education. This is the notion of unwilling or even lazy students, who would be happy to not be challenged and to not make an effort. The results of ten years National Student Survey show that Dutch students are not unwilling at all. And it seems probable that students elsewhere have the same preference – as their university programme succeeds in keeping them motivated.


The book “Student Satisfaction in the Netherlands 1996-2005” is available for the press as a pdf-download via this link.
In print, the book can be purchased via the webshop of www.keuzegids.org or through any Dutch bookseller. ISBN 97890-876-1031-9. The price of the book is € 40.
Parallel with this publication in English, a new Dutch report is published about the most recent trends in student satisfaction, from 2003 to 2008. This booklet has not been translated into English yet.

Basic features of the Dutch National Student Survey.

The following features characterise the Dutch National Student Survey:

  • Uniform, non-selective sampling. From the total population of each course, a random selection was taken.
  • One high-response interview method. All students were contacted and interviewed by telephone, in one small time window. This ensured maximum response and a minimum of artefacts
  • Detail. All bachelor programmes of all universities were judged separately. To make this possible within the available budget, a discipline cycle was used. All programmes within one discipline were judged within the same year. In most disciplines, measurement was repeated every three years.
  • Ten-point scale. Students judged their courses on a ten-point scale, which is the standard for alle evaluations and judgments in Dutch education.
  • Ten dimensions of quality. Al the answers were summarized in ten scores, which resulted in a standardised ‘quality profile’ for every institution and discipline.

In its simple and systematic setup, the survey can still serve as an example for countries that want to develop instruments for monitoring education quality and student satisfaction both nationally and in comparison between disciplines and institutions. (see appendix: features of the NSS)

CHOI means Centre for Higher Education Information. It is an activity of the foundation HOP, which stands for Higher Education Press Agency.