Carmen Neghina
9 years ago

Ireland Joins Scandinavia at the Top of International Student Satisfaction

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StudyPortals International Student Satisfaction Awards 2015: Irish universities have the most satisfied students in Europe, slightly overtaking last year’s winning universities in Finland, Sweden and Denmark.

EINDHOVEN – Students going abroad to Ireland have reported the highest satisfaction with their international study experience, followed by last year’s leaders from Scandinavia: Finland, Sweden and Denmark. Despite a slight decrease since last year, international student satisfaction continues to remain high in Europe, with 86% of students being satisfied with their study abroad experience, compared to 89% in 2014. Only 7% of students report a score below 6 to their internationals study experience this year.

With an average satisfaction score of 9.0, Ireland overtook last year’s winner, Finland as well as runner-ups Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland which received an 8.9 average score. Irish universities were particularly appreciated for their community atmospheres, innovative programmes, support structures for students, as well as their multicultural mix and vivid student life. At the other end of the spectrum, France continues to have the lowest score in international student satisfaction, with an 8.2 score, with complaints continuing to revolve around the poor student services available at the universities, as well as the excessive bureaucracy.
International Student Satisfaction Awards 2015 - Winning Countries (2)

Italian, French, Belgian and Hungarian students are the most satisfied with their international experience, while students from Finland and the Netherlands are among 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.

The StudyPortals International Student Satisfaction Awards 2015 are based on 17,018 reviews, added to STeXX.eu – the student experience website during the 2014 – 2015 academic year. While Ireland and Scandinavia have the highest international student satisfaction, Spain has the highest numbers of winning universities (24), followed by Germany with 16 awarded universities, Italy (11) and the Netherlands (10). Students mostly visit Spanish universities on exchange programmes, primarily Erasmus funded.

The full results of the latest StudyPortals International Student Satisfaction Awards 2015 were announced Wednesday, 16th September at the annual EAIE conference in Glasgow. A total of 150 universities will be awarded across Europe this year.

International Student Satisfaction in Europe - Country of Origin

For a full list of the awarded countries, see the table below.

 

Destination country Average student satisfaction rating Number of outstanding universities Number of excellent universities Number of very good universities
Ireland 9.04 1 3 1
Finland 8.95 0 4 5
Sweden 8.90 1 3 4
Denmark 8.89 0 5 1
Switzerland 8.85 0 0 2
Poland 8.85 1 2 4
Netherlands 8.80 1 3 7
Norway 8.78 0 2 1
Czech Republic 8.77 0 2 3
United Kingdom 8.75 0 5 5
Germany 8.71 1 6 11
Austria 8.64 0 1 5
Spain 8.62 0 4 20
Portugal 8.56 0 1 5
Italy 8.46 0 2 10
Hungary 8.44 0 1 2
Belgium 8.26 0 3 4
France 8.23 0 0 6

You can read more about the awards on the intelligence page, and see the list of awarded universities per country.

Press contact: Carmen Neghina | carmen@studyportals.com | +31 655 875 270

 

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