Studying at the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE)

Faculty organization

The Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) of the University of Groningen is one of the largest natural sciences faculties in the Netherlands. The School of Science and Engineering (SSE) is responsible for organizing and running the 40 Bachelor and Master’s degree programmes of the faculty. The majority of these programmes are organized into six disciplinary clusters. Each of the clusters is supervised by a programme board and supported by a cluster team.

Research at FSE is divided into 10 research institutes. The lecturers of the programmes are in general researchers in one of the research institutes.

Academic year

The academic year is divided into a winter and a summer semester. Within these semesters, course units and examinations are scheduled in various ways, depending on the specific degree programme. There will be no classes on these holidays (note that the university buildings may also be closed on these days): Christmas and New Year’s day (including two weeks of Christmas holidays), Good Friday and Easter (including easter Monday), King’s day (April 27), Liberation Day (May 5), Ascension day, Pentecost (including Whit Monday) and the summer holidays. In addition, Friday, 30 May 2025 is an education-free day at FSE.

Timetables

The timetable generator (rooster.rug.nl) shows all events related to a course unit, such as lectures, tutorials and seminars. You can find the timetables for all UG courses here. Timetables for FSE course units in the next academic year are usually published from July 15 onwards. These may change during the year.

Credit system

When completed successfully, course units are awarded with a number of ECTS credit points, usually 5 ECTS at FSE. ECTS stands for European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System, which is the EU standardized system for measuring student workload. One ECTS credit point represents 28 hours of full-time study (including contact hours, reading, independent study, preparation for exams, etc.). 60 ECTS credit points represent one academic year.

Grading system

In general, each course unit is examined by an examination (written or oral), a written assignment, or a presentation. The Dutch marking scale ranges from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest), but marks of 10 or lower than 3 are exceptional. To pass a course unit, you need a final mark of 6 at minimum. Final marks are given in steps of 0.5; 5.5 is however never given as a final mark. A grade below 6 requires the course unit to be repeated until a 6 or higher is achieved. The cumulative grade for the whole programme is the weighted average of the individual grades for each of the units, taking into account the number of ECTS per course. Some course units can be passed with either pass or fail; these are not calculated into the weighted average.

Board of Examiners

Each degree programme has a Board of Examiners, which determines the rules related to the practical aspects of examinations. The Board of Examiners is also responsible for individual matters such as approval of individual study programmes, granting exemptions, admission to course units to which you would normally not be admitted, assessing force majeure in situations related to registration and examinations and investigating potential fraud cases.

Programme Committee

Each degree programme has a Programme Committee, which advises the programme director on the Teaching and Examination Regulations. It is also responsible for the evaluation of course units and the evaluation of the degree programme. A Programme Committee consists of both staff members and students. You may become a member as well.