In our coverage of public universities we talked about Amsterdam, last week. In this article we shall bring you abreast with Rotterdam which is quite popular with international students.
Rotterdam is the second largest port in the world and the amount of cargo it handles is mind boggling and a sight to see.
It’s not really much of a tourist destination and thus most of the population prefers to speak Dutch though they often have a fair to good knowledge of English. In any case, as it would appear there is a great possibility of the government making Dutch classes compulsory. We had mentioned this in our last article and one will have to wait a little to see how their parliament votes.
Many of the international students are attracted to Rotterdam due to three main reasons. One is of course the quality of education offered by the Erasmus University and the vast range of courses, the others are that the distance to most cities in Holland is short and easily commutable given the excellent transport system and quite importantly the prospect of finding part time work with relative ease.
Travel within the city is made convenient by the excellent metro system and buses. Incidentally, Rotterdam was the first city in Holland to build a metro.
Lively Lifestyle
Even though it’s not much of a tourist destination, the authorities in Rotterdam make sure that the city offers many kinds of activities apart from shopping, restaurants and cafes. In fact they have what they call the Night Mayor who makes sure that the night life remains alluring. It is also interesting to note that Rotterdam is one of the greenest cities in the country with numerous parks, many of which have barbeque facilities. During spring and summer you’ll also find plenty of music shows and theatre plays being held in many of the parks. Added to that is a sizable forest right at the edge of the city.
Facilities for sports are par excellence and there are several cycling and rollerblading paths in the city.
Erasmus University
The university does not offer accommodations and the Dutch although friendly people are usually private by nature and do not often welcome paying guests, though it is not unheard of some students getting themselves a room with a family. The best course for international students is to look for hostel accommodations or collaborate with other students to share an apartment with.
As always we would request you to visit the website of the Erasmus University and identify the courses most suited to your aspirations.
Cost of Living
Around 1100 to 1200 Euros apart from your tuition fees should be your budget towards your monthly expenses, in the opinion of this writer.
Photos: Shutterstock
Support us!
All your donations will be used to pay the magazine’s journalists and to support the ongoing costs of maintaining the site.
Share this post
Interested in co-operating with us?
We are open to co-operation from writers and businesses alike. You can reach us on our email at [email protected]/[email protected] and we will get back to you as quick as we can.
