Utrecht University

Utrecht University is a public research university in Utrecht, the Netherlands, founded in 1636. It is one of the older Dutch universities and a comprehensive institution with seven faculties rather than a collegiate or technical-institute structure. Teaching and research are concentrated in the city of Utrecht, including Utrecht Science Park east of the historic center.

The faculties cover humanities, law, economics and governance, geosciences, medicine, science, social and behavioral sciences, and veterinary medicine, the last the only veterinary faculty in the Netherlands. University Medical Center Utrecht and institutes in sustainability, life sciences, and geosciences matter to graduate students. Strengths include life sciences, geosciences, sustainability, law, and veterinary science.

Enrollment is about 30,000 students. A large share of master's programs is taught in English, and international students form a substantial part of graduate cohorts, drawn from many European and overseas countries. Faculty number in the thousands. Physicist Gerard 't Hooft, a Nobel laureate, completed his doctorate at Utrecht and remained on the faculty.

Graduate study is organized through master's programs, often two-year research master's, and Ph.D. training in graduate schools. In the Dutch model, many Ph.D. candidates are employed as junior researchers rather than tuition-paying students. The academic year is divided into two semesters, often with four teaching periods. Funding for doctoral work typically comes with employment contracts or grants. Utrecht is a compact, bicycle-oriented city; graduate life mixes the historic center with laboratories at Utrecht Science Park.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, Utrecht University lists 47 graduate programs across 21 subjects: 45 master's programs and 1 doctoral program, with the widest choice in biology, business & management and earth & environmental sciences. Utrecht University holds rank 109 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.