Antonia Raileanu
9 years ago
International Student Satisfaction in Europe 2015
Every year we take a closer look at how satisfied students are with their international study experience within Europe. In doing so, we also decided to recognize the efforts of the best performing universities, with the International Student Satisfaction Awards. For the third year in a row, we are recognizing and rewarding the universities that give their international students their best study experience.
The awards are based on the 17,018 reviews students left during the academic year of 2014-2015 on the student experience exchange platform. STeXX.eu allows students to give their study abroad experience a score out of 10, and then give their reasons for giving that score – revealing whether or not they were happy with the experience, and why. For those universities for which we received more than 15 responses, we have identified those with very high scores. This year, we are awarding 150 European universities who’ve received a minimal score of 8 based on at least 15 student reviews.
The Categories:
- Award for Outstanding international student satisfaction: at least 9.5 out of 10
- Award for Excellent international student satisfaction: between 9 and 9.4 out of 10
- Award for Very good international student satisfaction: better than an 8 out of 10
On average, it seems that international students are very satisfied with their study experience, giving it an average of 8.6, slightly lower than last year’s average of 8.9. Only 7% of students report a score below 6 to their internationals study experience this year.
The best performing country this year is Ireland, which is joining last year’s winners from Scandinavia: Finland, Sweden and Denmark. Only five universities received an Outstanding International Student Satisfaction Award in 2015: Poznan University of Economics (Poland), Wageningen University (the Netherlands), University of Heidelberg (Germany), Maynooth University (Ireland) and the University of Gothenburg (Sweden). These universities received their awards during the International Student Satisfaction Awards at the EAIE 2015 in Glasgow.
While Ireland and Scandinavia have the highest international student satisfaction, Spain has the highest numbers of winning universities (23), followed by Germany with 17 awarded universities, Italy (11) and the Netherlands (10).
Italian, French, Belgian and Hungarian students are the most satisfied with their international experience, while students from Finland, and the Netherlands are the most dissatisfied with their international study experience. Finnish and Dutch students may be used to higher standards of education, and could have higher expectations while studying abroad.
You can browse through our country pages to see the list of local winners for 2015, as well as the aspects the students enjoyed most during their study experience.
See country reports
In the media
September 2015 – The Pie News – Overseas students in Ireland most satisfied in Europe
September 2015 – Good News Finland – International Students show their satisfaction with Finland
September 2015 – ERR.ee – University of Tartu rated highly by international students
September 2015 – La Provincia – La ULPGC, entre las más valoradas por los estudiantes de intercambio
September 2015 – Reflex – Chystáte se studovat v rámci Erasmu? Vyhněte se Francii
September 2015 – TipFM – Foreign students happy with Irish colleges
September 2015 – Western People – Irish universities give international students the best experience
September 2015 – The Local Denmark – Denmark ranked fourth in student satisfaction
September 2015 – The Local France – Foreign students rank France ‘worst in Europe’
September 2015 – De Morgen – België scoort na Frankrijk het laagst bij internationale studenten
September 2015 – Algemeen Nijmeegs Studentenblad – RU krijgt 8+ van internationale studenten
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