Skip to ContentSkip to Navigation
About us Latest news News

Growth at the University of Groningen stabilizes

Total number of students at the UG >32,700
31 October 2019

On 28 October 2019, 32,765 students were enrolled at the University of Groningen in a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree programme. This is an increase of 2.4% compared to 2018. The growth in student numbers is clearly starting to stabilize; in 2018 the UG grew by 4.6% compared to 2017 . Degree programmes at the Faculties of Science and Engineering, Law, and Spatial Sciences are particularly popular. The relatively new faculty Campus Fryslân in Leeuwarden has grown to 106 students.

Two weeks ago the VSNU (Association of Universities in the Netherlands) announced that, for the 2019-2020 academic year, more than 300,000 Bachelor’s and Master’s students are enrolled at Dutch universities – which is a national first. This represents a nationwide increase of approximately 4% compared to the previous academic year.

Increase in the number of Master’s students

5,619 new students registered for the propaedeutic phase, 1,029 for the pre-Master and 4,007 new students registered for the Master’s phase. Since 2009, there has been a steady increase in the number of Master's students at the UG: for the 2019-2020 academic year, this number has crept over 10,200.
The programmes which have had the biggest increase in the total number of students are the Bachelor’s degrees in Business, Computing Science and Biomolecular Sciences. Degree programmes that have experienced a relatively much higher intake are the Bachelor Global Responsibility & Leadership, the Master Sustainable Entrepreneurship and the Executive MBA.

International students from over 120 countries

2,595 new international students have registered for the 2019-2020 academic year. In total, 7,683 students from more than 120 countries are now studying at the UG, 23.4% (was 22.8%) of the total number of registered students. The University College Groningen, Campus Fryslân and the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences are the most popular among international students. 2,274 of the more than 7,600 international students are German; this number has not increased compared to last year. Germany is followed by Romania (445) in second place, then the United Kingdom (441), Italy (405), China (353), Greece, France, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Spain, Ireland and India (all with more than 150 students).

Fixed quotas

There are fewer new Dutch propaedeutic students at the UG this year than there were in 2018 (-187); this year’s level is around the same as it was in 2017. This can be attributed to additional numerus fixus (fixed quota) programmes: there are six this year, compared to three in 2018. The Psychology and International Business degree programmes, which were hugely popular in 2018, have both introduced fixed quotas for the current academic year. This also affected the German influx.

Male to female ratio

The male to female student ratio has changed slightly compared to 2017 and 2018. There are currently slightly more women (52.5%) than men at the University of Groningen. This is especially the case for the first registrations (54.4%). The percentage of female students is higher among international students than among Dutch students.


Last modified:13 March 2020 01.59 a.m.
View this page in: Nederlands

More news

  • 12 September 2023

    Art in times of AI

    Leonardo Arriagada Beltran conducted his PhD research on the interface of computer-generated art and the constantly evolving field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He will defend his Phd thesis on 21 September. His research offers valuable insights...

  • 28 August 2023

    Harish Vedantham and Casper van der Kooi nominated for 'Wetenschapstalent 2023'

    Harish Vedantham and Casper van der Kooi have been nominated by New Scientist for Wetenschapstalent 2023 (Science Talent 2023). This election is meant to give young scientists and their research a stage.

  • 26 July 2023

    Five promising UG researchers to top institutes abroad on Rubicon grants

    No less than five promising PhD graduates from the University of Groningen will be able to conduct research at top institutes abroad for two years thanks to the Rubicon programme organized by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research...