The facility, which is operated by the British-based educational company Study Group, will provide preparatory year classes for certain foreign students who want to eventually study at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the RUG.
The centre in Groningen, which is located at Zernikepark 4, will employ five instructors who will teach physics, mathematics, chemistry, English and study skills to a group of 35 students.
Preparations
Stephen Orme, director of the Holland International Study Centres in Amsterdam and Groningen, says that keeping the first group small was intentional. ‘We are satisfied with the outcome, but we are planning to implement a Business programme next year and will hopefully grow our Groningen centre more.’
Students who were provisionally accepted into either a bachelor or master degree programme at the RUG attend a full year at the Study Centre to become better prepared to study at the Dutch research university level. If students pass all the courses, they will be automatically accepted into the university programme. The annual tuition fee for the Study Centre are 16,480 euros for this academic year.
Facilities
The centre, which is a series of offices on the second floor of the building on the Zernike campus, is ready for the students. Similar to the centre in Amsterdam, many of the students are living at The Student Hotel, but having access to university resources is still a work in progress.
‘We are certain that students will be able to use the study centres and the computers, and we hope that they will also have access to ACLO sports centre,’ says Elke Gengler, a physics and mathematics instructor at the new facility.
During the opening event on Tuesday, students received their class schedules and had the chance get to know each other. It may be their introduction week, but the students will be taking their first assessments in the coming days before lessons officially start on Monday.