Hi all, my name is Oscar currently on the tail end of my year abroad in Groningen, Netherlands. I am in my third year of Anthropology and Archaeology and wanted to take the year abroad as an opportunity to further develop some soft skills and gain international experience. Groningen was an excellent choice in this respect, it is by far the most international city I have ever lived in despite having a population of just 200,000 I have met people from all backgrounds. The international student body here includes people from every continent, with interestingly very few from the UK.
Academic Life
The academic life at RUG (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) contrasts sharply with that of Southampton, and in my opinion not in a necessarily positive way. The university itself is huge, particularly the faculty of arts (of which archaeology is included) which has a massive number of modules, often with fairly arbitrary entry requirements, and totally different teaching styles. I was told anthropology was apparently unrelated to Middle East Studies, and thus I could not take any such modules but for some reason was eligible to take American Studies. Ultimately I was eligible for so few modules that the university did not even give me enough modules/credits to pass the year (55 instead of 60 ECTS) they also did not bother to tell me this until I manually counted my credits half way through the last semester/block.
Generally the approach seems to be a little archaic to me – often digital note taking and laptops were prohibited in lectures. Slideshows were also often not uploaded which made revision unnecessarily hard – and lecture recordings themselves were most of the time totally out of the question. The learning style mainly consisted of cramming textbook style information prior to an exam which usually consisted of a few short essay questions you had to write from memory. I have passed everything thus far but usually find I forget everything I have learned shortly after the exam. Although this all sounds fairly negative, do not let me scare you, the University is huge and experiences differ widely. Archaeology is quite a niche course at RUG and a non-archaeology student will likely encounter a totally different approach and style from what I have gathered speaking to students of other disciplines.
The City
The city on the other hand is stunning. Groningen has been consistently rated one of the happiest cities in Europe. It has excellent public transport, is incredibly safe, and absolutely packed with culture and nightlife for a city of its size. It is possible to meet people from Brazil to Japan and everywhere in between. In terms of quality of life, Groningen by far supersedes anything I have previously experienced. It has a very young population being predominately a student city, there is a huge variety of student courses on offer for a reasonable price, including but not limited to kickboxing, windsurfing and juggling. Relatively speaking, the cost of living is expensive but also fairly reasonable, perhaps marginally more expensive then that UK. It is also a well connected city, with direct train routes to most other cities in the Netherlands.
I would thus always recommend taking a year abroad in this city, it has been an enormously beneficial experience for me, and certainly equipped me with the ability to do better in both my final year and I am sure the professional world too. One critical piece of advice for future exchange students is that as there is very little direct support, you are fundamentally responsible for your own administration at the university, it is important to be aware of this early. The term times are also much longer, so expect strict attendance requirements, and a generally increased workload – but do not let that get in the way of enjoying the city!.