Living in Groningen and Studying in the RUG

The RUG is a beautiful university, with the majority of buildings situated in the Zernike Campus, situated about 10 minute by bicycle (or 30 minute walk North of the city centre). The faculty is aworld leading in the research field, with active researchers in all departments. The teaching staff is active and the majority seem at least partly interested in the subject they're teaching.

An average timetable will contain lectures from 1 to 2 hours long (the majority are 2 hours in the Faculty of Economics and Business), and a series of 1 hour seminars. The Dutch education system (or maybe it's just in RUG) has a very active form of measuring your learning skills, compared to the UK. You will receive small tests in almost all seminars, which count towards your final grade, as well as exams almost every 4 weeks. This is because most modules are only 8 weeks long, and have midterms as well as finals. I, personally, found this quite annoying, as I would get out of one set of exams and would know that in 4 weeks I'd be back doing more. But then again, for a lot of people, the grades you receive on Erasmus don't count towards your degree.... so it doesn't really matter.

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One issue I did have was the serious lack of facilities the university offers students. Unlike my university in the UK, the RUGs library is always at full capacity - no seats or computers, ever. Additionally there are almost no books to loan (meaning almost all students buy all their books every year - £200+), the on-site cafeterias are basic and expensive, and the gym is very small. I ended up buying some books, never buying food on-site, and using a non-university gym (of which there are loads).

On the positive side, the city is phenomenal. A beautiful place, which is full of students (almost half the population), as well as quirky, there is a lot of independent shops and restaurants. It's not a huge city, but not tiny either: perfect for exploring, over a semester or year of Erasmus. Groningen has a reputation for being a bit of a "party town", which is true, but it's not an intrusive feature. Unlike the British, Dutch people (in general) don't get aggressive etc when drunk, so it's nothing like Newcastle Upon Tyne on a Friday night, for example. I really enjoyed this, as I could go out whenever I wanted, and there was always a party going on until 5am, somewhere, but if I didn't want to party, that was fine too, and there were plenty of other things to do.

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Accommodation-wise, almost all students live in private houses or flats. There are university owned halls of residence, but they're unpopular due to their very high price relative to private property, and their general poor condition and strict rules. Private housing can be sourced via Facebook or a range of other sites, but don't get tricked into paying a "finders fee" or "agency fee", these are almost unheard of in the Netherlands, and are just a way of agencies or landlord ripping off foreign students. Additionally, it's worth looking up housing law in the Netherlands - there are some really great laws which protect students, which the UK (and most other European countries) don't have.

Transport to Groningen is mainly via train. There is a small airport, but the locations it flies to are extremely limited. From the UK the best way to get into Groningen is a flight to Amsterdam, and a train which goes once every hour direct from the airport to Groningen Central (3 hours). The trains are efficient, clean and usually on time. They're also extremely cheap (7 Euro return), if you can get yourself a group ticket (google: NS Group Ticket).