HZ again in second position in the ranking of ‘best medium-sized universities of applied sciences’
The assessment of the Keuzegids hbo 2021 (Selection guide) states that HZ is once again in second place among the best medium-sized universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands. The institute also celebrates that it is one of the country’s best universities of applied sciences for the eleventh year in a row. Four study programmes have been assessed as ‘top study programmes’ and HZ has eight programmes in the top 3 this year.
Top study programmes
This year, four HZ study programmes may be called top programmes in their category because they received more than 75 points. These are Social Work (at No. 1), Pedagogy (at No. 1), Civil Engineering (at No. 3) and Industrial Engineering (at No. 4). Furthermore, Water Management (No. 2), Engineering (No. 2), Logistics Engineering (No. 2), Maritime Officer (No. 2) and International Business (No. 2) are in the top 3 of their categories.
The Keuzegids states the following about HZ: “Just like last year, the “Zeeuwsche Hogeschool” is in second place. HZ has excelled in technical studies such as Civil Engineering and Industrial Engineering, but across the board the Social Work and Pedagogy programmes are rated as the absolute best.”
Caring care of education and of students
“We are pleased with the excellent result, which is partly based on the new figures, but we are also aware that the recent assessment of our students is missing in this new Keuzegids. The reality now is very different. The corona crisis and all the measures are having an effect on higher education. We understand that studying in these special times and following online education demands a lot from our students, but also from HZ and our employees. The main thing is that we want to continue to deliver quality”, says John Dane, president of the Executive Board.
In the near future we will invest extra time in monitoring and evaluating our (online) education. The evaluation questions that students receive after taking a course are intrinsically adapted to the new circumstances. In addition, the Educational Excellence lectorate is starting an investigation into the experiences of our students. We will use all the input to make improvements where necessary.
Finally, the social aspect of studying is given extra attention. We will also continue to make use of the space provided for physical education and research. For example, where possible we try to organize lectures on location and we are organizing extra activities to have students interact with each other. We also have a staff team are available for extra guidance, study or social.”
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Keuzegids
The Keuzegids HBO 2021 has been compiled by an independent editorial team. The Keuzegids contains a systematic quality comparison of related study programmes in higher education
Other calculation method
It will be no surprise that the rankings look largely the same as last year. An important part of the Guide are the results of the National Student Survey. In 2019, the results were unusable due to the introduction of privacy legislation, this year we are faced with the corona crisis. As a result the NSE 2018 was used for the 2021 Guide. However, new figures have been included in the assessments: how many students have enrolled for the second study year and how many of them graduate without a study delay.
The calculation method is different because of the above and the scores are not directly comparable to the past years. All information about the guide, rankings and methodology can be found at www.keuzegids.nl.