Things you didn’t know about studying at WUR!

Choosing a university is at the same time exciting and a challenging decision. While thinking about Wageningen, you should consider what types of studies you are interested in, location, spoken language, culture etc. All these aspects are important but do not forget about exploring practical day life things. In this blog post, I will introduce you to the topics like study-life balance, grading, exam systems and more!

Study-life balance

At WUR the structure of studies and courses is simple. There are study periods containing one or two courses which can be performed in the morning, afternoon or during the whole day. Usually, everyone is busy with their studies until 4-6pm when the classes finish. This of course depends on the way you plan your periods. Nevertheless, after these hours most of the students have free time. They can have dinner with housemates, do sports, go for a beer at local pubs or relax. This creates an excellent study-life balance where there is time for everything.

Grading

Here exams and reports are graded on a scale from 1-10 which can be different from most other countries. The majority of the courses require a 5,5 grade in order to pass. Usually getting it is very doable when attending lectures, and practicals and being consistent.

Exams

After or during most of the courses there will be time for exams. These can have open, closed or multiple-choice questions, sometimes it is allowed to use a book or formulas. Some of the exams are performed on your own device such as a laptop. Usually, you have 3 hours for it which is very often more than enough. Teachers will then check and grade exams mostly within 2 weeks. Then there is a possibility for viewing and discussing marks.

Campus

Every student spends most of their studying time on campus as the majority of courses happen in WUR buildings. Besides studying there are plenty of other things to do here. During breaks, students go outside to enjoy the nice weather laying on the grass by water ponds. They can also go to Orion to “the spot” with nice music and pool, ping-pong, football tables etc. Going for a walk around to clear your mind from studying is a good option too.

Food

While studying most of the students will have a lunch break between 12am-2pm. First of all of course there are microwaves in all WUR buildings so you can warm up prepared at-home food. If you didn’t have time for that there are several places on campus you can buy a good meal. In Forum and Orion, you will find big canteens with lots of warm soups, pasta, sandwiches, salads and many more. Moreover, there is Aurora in which you can also buy proper lunch food and drink a nice coffee. Besides these, there is campus plaza where you can find a small supermarket, Chinese and Italian restaurants and subway.

I hope that after reading this post you will know a bit more about studying at WUR!