Our second to last “real” day of activities, Day Twelve, began at around 8:15 AM. We first congregated in the lobby of the hotel as usual, before moving out to the tram station outside. While the last two weeks have been rather hot, it had finally begun to rain beginning yesterday. Anticipating cooler weather for the day, I decided to bring a fleece zip-up with me. Fortunately, our destination today, InHolland University Rotterdam, was along the tram route that passed by our hotel. That meant that we could get down to the school without making any transfers, and we arrived a few minutes early. The University was located in the Kop Van Zuid neighborhood of Rotterdam, which was the former harbour and port district. The visit began with a fantastic tour of Kop Van Zuid, and our hosts offered an in-depth history lesson on the area, provided some brief history on the bombings that took place in the city, and explained how the area was being redeveloped. We were then given a brief look inside the school itself, before being served lunch on the 15th floor. Our host then presented an overview of the University and their study abroad programs, before opening the floor for questions. We wrapped up the visit with a quiz on the Netherlands, which I somehow managed to win 1st place after scoring only 71% of the questions correctly. I then broke off from the main group to visit Museum Rotterdam, which was a World War II history center that featured a overview of the bombings of Rotterdam, the German occupation, and Allied liberation along with a collection of artifacts. I then took the metro to Den Haag, and rejoined part of the group for dinner at Cloo’s. We then took the metro back to Rotterdam and I fell asleep in the hotel.

One interesting part of our trip to InHolland Rotterdam was how the Dutch approach to education was completely different than the US approach. The most shocking difference in higher education between the Netherlands and the US was the cost differences. Our host revealed to us that for EU Nationals (anyone with a valid passport from a European Union nation), the Dutch government caps annual tuition at somewhere around €2,000 per year. This figure is completely shocking to Americans, who are accustomed to hearing of up to $90,000 per year annual tuition costs at some schools. From what I understand, this absurdly (to an American) low cost of tuition is due to the amount of government funding to higher education institutions. It’s a complex situation and I have nowhere near enough information to make any definitive conclusions, but it seems like the higher tax rate in the Netherlands (~50% of income) compared to much lower American taxes helps funnel funds into schools. It is also important to make the distinction, however, that those tuition ceilings only apply to public institutions, and private institutions can charge as much or little as they want. Knowing all of this, the €2,000 per year in tuition is somewhat misleading because the extra tax burden on citizens helps to pay for the difference in costs. The tax burden would be spread across all citizens, effectively making higher education the responsibility of and an investment by all taxpayers of the Netherlands. This contrasts with the United States, where the cost of higher education is the responsibility of the individual student. Even if the total cost of higher education is still ultimately the same, the redistribution of that cost to the entire community in the Netherlands makes a highly educated adult population the responsibility of the entire country. Another major difference in US and Dutch higher education that was brought up today was the difference in learning approaches. It’s no secret that American higher education is lecture heavy in many fields, and it can be hard for some students to truly grasp some materials. That is in contrast to the Dutch approach (or specifically at InHolland University), where the emphasis in learning is placed on hands-on experience. For example, instead of listening to a lecture about a certain topic, Dutch schools may encourage students to do a hands-on project that will get them more involved in the material. This style of teaching also means that students spend less time sitting in the classroom. Our host mentioned that by year three and four, students may only come to the University building 2 or 3 times per week. This is in contrast to the US, where it is expected that you attend classes five days of the week. While I personally like lecture-based learning for many subjects, I understand the appeal of a more hands-on approach and can see how it is beneficial for many other subjects.

A recurring theme throughout the day was the history of Rotterdam during World War II, and how it has permanently reshaped the city. I have discussed briefly in previous blogs how Rotterdam was hit particularly hard during the war, and why looks so drastically different than other cities in the Netherlands. While the German occupation of Amsterdam was a brutal one that saw thousands of Jews and other non-Aryan groups rounded up and killed, the city itself was largely left intact. The same could not be said for Rotterdam. On May 14th, 1940, the Germans launched a bombing campaign of Rotterdam in preparation for their invasion of the Netherlands. Rotterdam was a critical city for the advancing Nazis to capture because it was one of the largest ports in the world and was also located at the mouth of the Rhine River, a major river flowing through Germany. The devastating German bombing campaign left fires that burned for days afterwards, and future allied bombings of the city only ensured more destruction of the city. By the end of the war, over 85% of the city was completely destroyed, and meant that Rotterdam would have to be completely rebuilt. For that reason today, Rotterdam looks completely different than other Dutch cities with tall skyscrapers, modern glass offices, and infrastructure that greatly favours personal vehicles (very American). While learning about this devastating history, many scenes of the bombed-out Rotterdam reminded me of scenes of Tokyo and other Japanese cities following World War II. The Bombing of Tokyo (Operation Meetinghouse) in 1945 was the single most destructive bombing raid in history, and left anywhere up to 200,000 Japanese civilians dead and completely obliterated Tokyo. The unfortunate reality is that civilians are always the victims of war.

Overall, today was one of my favourite days in the Netherlands between the University visit and history lessons. I am excited but also a little sad that tomorrow will be our last day of activities in the Netherlands, but I am still looking forward to visiting the floating farm.