Am interested in these two LLM programmes at University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Anyone on here in one of these programmes or graduated from them (or know someone who has)? Any advice on the quality of either of the programmes? Any information is helpful!

Hi! I am currently enrolled in European Economic Law in Groningen, my studies started in September 2017 so that I may not be able to provide a complete picture yet, however I can tell you about my experience so far.

The application and organisation process were very smooth and fast, I was equally happy with the introduction organised by the university and the faculty. Everything happening during the semester is well-organised, the online services of RUG work well so that you can easily stay on top of everything if you check your stuff regularly. If you do decide to pick Groningen be sure to look for housing early.

Your question was mainly on the quality of programmes, so I'll try to answer that. I am very satisfied with teaching and learning in my programme so far, the lecturers have been very engaged and extremely responsive (in class, during appointments and via email). The different courses either require you to take an exam, write a paper, do a weekly summary of articles or a combination of all these, this mixes up the studying techniques quite nicely. It also enables you to learn content straight forward for exams as well as criticise and reflect on the law for papers, I just feel like I am getting a good mixture of everything connected to European Economic Law. The group this year is rather small, it makes for a great teaching and discussion environment in classes and seminars. There are multiple lecturers responsible for different parts of European Economic Law, this is also quite nice since you get a mix of different opinions and different styles of teaching. I can't say too much about the thesis yet, for now it seems however that multiple lecturers are available and willing to supervise any appropriate idea you may have.

Scheduling and time management might also be interesting to you. You have up to three courses per block in the first semester and one course per block in the second one, with about three to four hours per week and course (usually two hours twice a week) you will not have to spend every day at university. You do however need to plan more work than just the lectures, especially for reading, writing papers and preparing for the exams. I still like the schedule as it gives me the chance to study in different ways (in the library, at home ...).

One more thing: The curriculum is pretty fixed, you only get a choice of courses in the final block, for the other three blocks your lectures and seminars are fixed. It is up to you if you feel that this suits you well or not, for me it has been perfect since I feel that the important topics of European Economic Law are covered and well-organised in a suitable and coherent manner (determined by the professors, obviously).

Overall, I can definitely recommend European Economic Law in Groningen. Feel free to ask me any other questions you might have, I'll gladly respond.

Thanks for your detailed reply! I will be starting my application to Groningen soon :)

Thanks for your detailed reply! I will be starting my application to Groningen soon :)