Dutch Academics

I have officially been through a week of classes at Vrije Universiteit, and it has definitely been an adjustment to get used to the classroom structure in Amsterdam. During orientation, they had told us that classes here tend to be much more independent than classes in the US. Having had no experience in any classes other than US ones, I assumed this was an exaggeration. I thought my studies at Colby had been fairly independent, with not much “hand holding” from professors, as they put it. However, after my first week of classes, I can confidently say I was wrong. Here, it is really up to you how you want to treat each of your courses. If you don’t want to go to any lectures or tutorials, that is completely acceptable, as the only truly required part of most courses is the final exam. So, as long as you pass the exam, even if you never attend a class, you can still say you took and passed that class. Learning also relies heavily on the books we are assigned to read, while the lecture only covers big ideas. This is definitely going to take some getting used to, since at home the learning comes mainly from the lecture, which is supplemented by the books. 

At orientation they also let us know that the general attitude of Dutch students is much less competitive than what we may be used to in the US, since they don’t place importance on numerical measurements of success such as a GPA. They said that many Dutch students are looking to pass their courses, not necessarily get straight A’s, which does seem to be true about some Dutch students. There seems to be less stress and panic about everything being done perfectly, which honestly seems to be a healthier learning environment. You are completely in control of how you want to learn, and rather than comparing yourself to your peers, there is a larger sense of community. People are more willing to help each other pass without the nagging stress of a GPA that determines your success. 

It is also such a different experience being in a room of students who are learning in English, but converse with their friends in Dutch. Almost every day a Dutch student will try speaking to me in Dutch (which is definitely encouraging me to take my Dutch Language class much more seriously). I spoke with one student in my Accounting class who grew up in Japan and moved to The Netherlands for school, but never learned Dutch. He said it gets tough being surrounded by everyone speaking Dutch, and he felt left out for it. I can see how that could get difficult as a full time student, rather than just a single semester study abroad student like myself, because I too was surprised that some students, even in the English lectures, would raise their hands and ask the professor questions in Dutch. It’s much different from what I’m used to, since I now can almost never understand the conversations happening around me. I didn’t expect the language barrier to play such a big role in my academic life, if at all, since I am taking classes taught in English, but it definitely has been having an impact, which I think is a good thing. I decided to study abroad to experience a completely new learning environment, and I got just that. 

Despite a few stressful and unfortunate moments this week, such as mistakenly being placed into a class taught only in Dutch and momentarily getting stuck in a revolving door in an academic building, my first week of classes has gone well, and I’m excited to see how the rest of the semester will go.