Foreign Eyes

Annually, hundreds of students from all over the world come to study at Utrecht University. To commemorate the university’s 375th anniversary, current and past international students were invited to refl ect on Dutch culture. What do they consider particularly noteworthy, surprising, incomprehensible or charming in their Dutch academic life? From a personal perspective and in their own words, the students share their experiences and comment on remarkable, frustrating and fascinating features of Dutch culture. Curtainless windows, delicious stroop wafels, a scent of freedom in the streets, canals refl ecting the city, professors on bicycles, cherished individualism and shared teabags: Dutch culture seen through foreign eyes.