Reviews of Hogeschool Holland | Netherlands

Useful | 0

Daiva B

Espoon - Vantaan Ammattikorkeakoulu, Vantaa, Finland
Business Studies, Undergraduate, ERASMUS Double Degree Program

Expenses

Main source of funding:

Other

Other sources of funding:

Family<br> Other

Work opportunities:

I didn't explore any work options

Personal spending habits

Most of the essential things in Amsterdam were cheaper than in Finland, e.g. food. Student housing in Amsterdam was twice more expensive than in Finland, eventhough the quality was much worse. These were the major differences in costs.

Housing:

was more expensive than at home.

Nightlife, Telephone, Travel:

was the same price as at home.

Overall, Food:

was less expensive than at home.

Accessibility of student needs

Second-hand text books

Second-hand household items

Computers / Internet

Administrative

Money from home

Personal comments

If you want to open a bank account in the Netherlands, you need to get a social security number. To get that you need to register. So it was quite a lot of trouble for that and I decided not to get a bank account. Cash from foreign banks can only be drawn from cash dispensers, it is not possible to pay with the foreign card in shops.

Useful | 0

Daiva B

Espoon - Vantaan Ammattikorkeakoulu, Vantaa, Finland
Business Studies, Undergraduate, ERASMUS Double Degree Program

Academic

Course recommendations

Course contents and quality are quite good, but the teachers could depend less on the books and put in more of their own experience.

My academic experiences

Quality of courses

Variety of courses

Access to resources

Interaction with teachers

Interaction with international students

Interaction with local students

Personal comments

The grading system is very strange, since we got 5 credits from project work, 5 credits from the final essay examination and 5 credits from the exams of ALL the courses. Eventhough we would have failed even one course exam, we would not get the 5 credits. So it felt that the credit system is not equally distributed.

My opinion of the university assessment

Exams at end of course

Exams throughout the course

Essays and/or projects at the end of course

Essays and/or projects throughout the course

Overall

Useful | 0

Daiva B

Espoon - Vantaan Ammattikorkeakoulu, Vantaa, Finland
Business Studies, Undergraduate, ERASMUS Double Degree Program

Overall

I wish I had known...

I wish I had more information on the study methods in Hogeschool INHOLLAND, because it was quite different from my home university.

In my opinion:

Everybody loved it, you will too!

Important factors in my choice
(1) Unimportant – (4) Very important

Academic reasons

4

Culture

4

Costs

1

Activities

4

Campus life

4

Party / people

4

Weather / location

1

Personal recommendation

There could be more interest paid towards helping students more and being student-oriented organisation. The management could be better too, since through my experience I saw that there was a lot of communication missing between different managerial layers. However, the internationality of the university is great and I would suggest them to keep cooperating with many different foreign universities.

During my experience abroad, I ...
(1) Never – (4) A lot

Became familiar with another culture

4

Traveled

4

Improved language skills

4

Met people from other countries

4

Became more independent

4

Partied a lot

4

Experienced a change in life

4

Advanced my studies & career

4

Final comments

Take good spirits with you when you are going to Amsterdam, because it is a city that never sleeps and if you want to, you can meet many wonderful and fun people and have a great time there. However, be aware of you personal belongings, especially in crouded central places and public transport. I had some unfortunate experiences there myself.

Useful | 0

Daiva B

Espoon - Vantaan Ammattikorkeakoulu, Vantaa, Finland
Business Studies, Undergraduate, ERASMUS Double Degree Program

Languages

Language of instruction: English

Local language was: Different than language of instruction

Was learning English a key decision factor?

Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning the local language a key decision factor?

Yes, I wanted to improve my the local language

How much did you improve your English?

My level before: No problems in any areas (including slang)
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your the local language?

My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Did not speak it

Language difficulties

Social

Educational

Administrative / Institutional

Overall

Personal comments

Most of the dutch people can speak English very well and thus it was never a problem for me to communicate through it there. However, most of the students that I needed to work with had worse English skills than I did, so I needed to adapt to that.

Useful | 0

Daiva B

Espoon - Vantaan Ammattikorkeakoulu, Vantaa, Finland
Business Studies, Undergraduate, ERASMUS Double Degree Program

Housing

Type of housing: On campus

Arranged by: Host university

If returning, I would choose: Apartment/House

Why?

Living on campus was relatively expensive compared with the quality of the rooms and the whole building. Also we had problems with the housing contract termination.

Personal assessment

Cost

Facilities

Location

Cleanliness

Space

Personal comments

Overall, it was nice to live on campus, but the building was very old and dirty. The appartments were small with only the minimum furniture. Also most of the housing contracts did not cover the whole semester, so at the end of it we needed to look for some place to live for a couple of days in order to finish our exams.

Useful | 0

Daiva B

Espoon - Vantaan Ammattikorkeakoulu, Vantaa, Finland
Business Studies, Undergraduate, ERASMUS Double Degree Program

Student life

Describe host city:

Students equally interact with the local and student community

Activities: Takes place mostly within the university/student environment

Travel, Nightlife: Takes place mostly outside the university/student environment

Personal social experience

Activities

Nightlife

Travel

Overall

Personal comments

the best bar was Cocos Outback, where we used to gather quite a lot. The best place to spend a good night with friends is Leidseplein in Amsterdam, where all the nightlife is boiling. Of course the places not to be missed are the Red-Light District, many Amsterdam parks (especially in spring-summer) and arts museums.

Hogeschool Holland

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