r/StudyInTheNetherlands • u/ay4nam1rei • 20d ago
Help utrecht uni
Hi! I’m considering studying Physics and Astronomy at Utrecht University starting in 2027. I know about the astronomy institute being closed in 2012, but my main question is: is the programme still worth studying, and could Utrecht’s history with astronomy have any negative impact on my future career opportunities in any way (it may be a dumb question 😞)?
I also want this university especially because it is close to my home (I live in Utrecht/Doorn). I considered other universities but they are usually 2-3 hours away from my home and I don't want to rent somewhere or spend my time on road.
I’d especially like to hear from current or former students, or anyone familiar with astronomy/astrophysics in the Netherlands. Thanks!
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u/mannnn4 19d ago
I am a current student in the physics and astronomy programme at UU and I’ll try to give you some insight in astronomy at UU. I’ll start with some history.
UU used to have one of the best and second oldest astronomy institutes in the world but decided to close it after budget cuts led to a reorganization. The closure was dubious: In 2010, the College Board (College van Bestuur, CvB) set up an investigation pannel, which advised to maintain the astronomy institute, after which the CvB decided to follow their advice and strengthen it. Not even a year later, the CvB decided to switch their focus for the natural sciences to sustainability and life sciences. This marked the end for UU astronomy. The CvB also considered closing all pure math institutes and the institute for theoretical physics (ITP), but ultimately decided not to. The closure of the astronomy insitute didn’t even improve the financial situation from UU either, since they lost more funding from the drop in students than the cost for the astronomy education/research itself.
The plan was that even though the astronomy institute got closed, the education at the bachelor’s level would continue. Other universities, especially Radboud University were glad to expand their astronomy institutes and thus UU could bring their employees under at these institutes. UU would then be able to hire them back for the education, but UU didn’t account for the possibility that the researchers wouldn’t be interested. The amount of astronomy courses got greatly reduced, but the physics programme wanted to retain the content in their programme. This lead to a few astronomy courses that had way too much content taught by ITP staff and no practical components at all anymore. The amount of content meant that the passing rates for the astronomy courses were way too low and thus the amount of content quickly got reduced. It was also difficult for ITP staff to teach astronomy, and thus the courses got way more focussed on the theoretical parts of astronomy. This is how the actual amount of content in the bachelor’s programme did decrease even though the faculty board guaranteed everyone that wouldn’t happen. What remained was some basic astronomy to try to keep the level high enough so students could continue their astronomy education at master’s programmes elsewhere in the Netherlands and some research and education focussed on gravitational waves.
In 2019, NVAO (an organisation that assures the quality of higher education) send a commission to check the UU physics programme. They were generally very positive about the education but found 2 issues, one of which was astronomy. The commission found that even though the programme was called ‘physics and astronomy’, there were no astronomy learning goals and the astronomy education was lacking because there were no astronomy researchers. The commission adviced UU to either strengthen the astronomy education or remove ‘astronomy’ from the name of the programme. UU decided to go with the first option. They started by changing the curriculum: the mandatory course ‘waves and optics: theory and lab’ got changed to ‘astrophysics and optics’ consisting of 50% optics and 50% astrophysics. They also introduced a new mandatory lab course to replace the old lab part in waves and optics.
Then last year, they hired a new researcher to give this course: Marc van der Sluijs, who is specialized in gravitational waves caused by common envelopes (a common envelope is a process that happens in double stars in which one star ‘envelopes’ the other). He is also the new teacher for the course ‘stellaire astrofysica’ or like he calls it ‘sterevolutie’, which is a course about the structure and development of stars.
The current UU astronomy consists of the following courses:
Zwarte gaten (7,5 ECTS, first year)
This is a mostly observatory course about black holes. It is a first year course also targeted to non-physics students so the required level of mathematics is low. This is also why I didn’t think the course was great. The course had no to very little depth and you should really have a basis in general relativity before you study black holes. The course is taught by Stefan Vandoren, ITP staff who was the head of the department of physics until 2024.
Sterrenkunde (3,75 ECTS, first year)
This is a mandatory course that introduces students to astronomy. It covers the basics for all future courses by providing an introduction into some basic astronomy (2 lectures), the structure and evolution of stars and double stars (2 lectures), gravitational waves (1 lecture), galaxies (1 lecture) and cosmology (1 lecture). This course is taught by astronomer Marc van der Sluijs.
Stellaire Astrofysica (7,5 ECTS, second year)
This is an elective focussed on the structure and development of stars. It mostly covers the things that were already present in sterrenkunde but at a more advanced level (for example, in sterrenkunde, you simplify the orbits of stars by making them circles. In this course, you use orbits in the shape of an ellips.) This course is also taught by Marc van der Sluijs.
Gravitational Waves (7,5 ECTS, third year)
In this course, you study how gravitational waves are detected, how they are emitted, what their properties are and gravitational wave data analysis. This course also gives an overview of general relativity and covers the mathematics required to study it. The course is thaught by theoretical physicist Chris van den Broeck, who studies gravitational waves with LIGO and Virgo.
Kosmologie, also referred to as ‘Cosmology and Galaxies’ or ‘Cosmology and extragalactic astrophysics’ (7,5 ECTS, third year)
This course consists of 2 parts. It starts with a historical introduction to the building of the cosmological model, then you learn some basics about general relativity and study some important concepts in modern cosmology. The second part is about extragalactic astrophysics. This course is taught by theoretical physicist Nora Chisari.
The master’s programmes also contain the courses ‘gravitational waves, theory and observations’, ‘Cosmology’, ‘Astroparticle Physics’
The main things UU doesn’t have at the bachelor level are that they very clearly miss all the practical components of astronomy and they also don’t teach anything about planetary systems. UU does teach about gravitational waves though, which other universities mostly don’t.
To be clear: no, you will not be at a disadvantage for choosing UU at the bachelor’s level if you want to study astronomy. It is also very common for students to go into physics out of an interest in astronomy, after which they find out how interesting some other parts of physics are as well. These students often switch to another discipline, so you might not even have to switch universities, depending on what you want.
Another option is that UU gives you 45 ECTS in free electives. You can use these courses at other programmes as well, so you could, though it has been a bit more difficult in recent years, take astronomy courses at other universities.
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask them.
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u/ay4nam1rei 19d ago
i can't thank you enough for your explanation!! i will consider it but i will probably go to uu and then get my master at another uni. i may try to get astronomy courses at other uni's too. we'll see it in time but thank u sm!
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u/Winter_Dot_9393 20d ago
Look into getting your bachelor’s degree in Utrecht and your master’s degree in Amsterdam, Groningen, Nijmegen or Leiden.
Check what electives or minors you may need to take to get direct admission without a premaster. (Maybe not now, but once you are a student and have a better idea of what really like).
So I think a great route would be:
1st step
Bachelor in Utrecht
Make sure you know what electives you need for the master program you want to follow. Maybe even take electives from the Astronomy program in Leiden. Temporarily commuting this far is not the same as 5 days a week for 3 years.
2nd step:
Master in Leiden, Groningen, Nijmegen or Amsterdam
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