According to students, the Technical University of Eindhoven is the best university in the Netherlands, while Radboud University Nijmegen is considered the best comprehensive university and Maastricht University the best specialist university.

Meanwhile, professors and associate professors consider the University of Utrecht the best comprehensive university, Tilburg University the best specialist university, and TU Eindhoven the best technical university.

Among colleges, the Ede Christian University College got the highest score. Among large colleges with at least 20 rated programmes, Avans College led the pack.

These are the results of De beste studies ("The best studies"), an annual survey conducted by Elsevier magazine and the research institute ResearchNed on the quality of higher education in the Netherlands.

The survey is primarily based on ratings given by 170.000 students as part of the extensive National Student Survey, during which students indicate how satisfied they are about the education, organisation, communications, facilities, teachers, and implementation of their programme.

Additionally, as part of the Elsevier Faculty Rating, over 2.000 professors nominated the best programmes within their field, based on the quality of the undergraduate programme, the selection of master programmes, and the quality of teachers and scientific publications.

Nearly all students in the Netherlands are asked to participate in the National Student Survey each spring. For this year's survey, a total of 614 studies at colleges and universities in the Netherlands were rated.

In order to arrive at an overall ranking, Elsevier looked at the percentage of rated programmes per institution where student satisfaction was above average.

The full survey appears in print in last week's edition of Elsevier magazine; the magazine is only available in Dutch.  The print version is only available via paid subscription, but you can access the digital version here.