News about education in the Netherlands

The 5th edition of the Social Progress Index (SPI) was recently published, revealing the best and worst countries worldwide in terms of the social and environmental health of the population. The Netherlands was ranked 7th overall in the list of 128 countries, improving slightly from the 8th place spot the country held in last year’s edition of the index.

The 14th edition of the QS World University Rankings was recently published, revealing top 959 universities in the world. All 13 Dutch research universities were scored among the best 400 institutions, while two of them have also made it into the top 100.

Universitas21, a worldwide consortium of leading research universities, has issued the rankings of countries, which offer higher education for international students. Sixth year in a row these rankings evaluated various criteria of national education systems as well as their progress and global impact.

Leiden University’s Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) has recently published its ranking of the top 900 universities in the world. These rankings assessed the scientific impact of universities by identifying how often they were cited in articles and reviews during recent years.

The 5th edition of the United Nations’ World Happiness Report was recently published, ranking happiness in 155 countries around the world. In this year’s edition, the Netherlands improved by one place and became 6th overall.

Elsevier Magazine publishes a ranking of Dutch universities of applied sciences and research universities every year. The score of each university is heavily based on the results of the annual National Student Questionnaire (Nationale Studenten Enquete, or NSE).

The World Economics Forum has published its Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) for 2016-2017. The Netherlands improved by one position since last year’s GCI, taking 4th place overall.

Times Higher Education has recently published the 2016-2017 edition of its World University Rankings. All 13 Dutch research universities were ranked within the top 200 results and 8 of them made it into the top 100 of the overall ranking. Four universities improved their last year’s results.

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, recently released their 2016 edition of the top 500 universities in the world. Many of the Netherlands’ research institutions, which offer higher education for international students, maintained their high standings and good reputation. Some of the institutions improved their overall global positions and also excelled in specific subjects and fields of science.

The Dutch cities of Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Eindhoven are 3 of the top 5 cities in the recently published Copenhagenize Index 2015. This year’s results reaffirm the Netherlands’ status as the most bicycle-friendly country in the world.