Top Higher Education Websites in the Netherlands 2023

“Equal opportunities for everyone” is the foundation of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. So to what extent are higher educational institutions on top of website accessibility, regardless of any invisible disabilities that students may have?

Monsido has analyzed the primary websites of the Top 40 Dutch Universities to see how their websites perform, and if they are accessible and fully-optimized for modern web standards.

Illustration of laptop, books, and a man holding the Dutch flag

Top 5 Websites Overall

We are thrilled to announce the top performers in Digital Accessibility, Content Quality Assurance, Response Time, Performance, and SEO.

The Overall category showcases the top-performing websites of Higher Education in the Netherlands in terms of SEO, response time, performance, and web accessibility. These websites received high overall rankings in 2023. Congratulations, and keep up the good work!

*Overall Ranking is based on the average (weighted) ranking across all categories.
Overall Ranking* University Name
1st Hogeschool Inholland
2nd Amsterdam VUMC
3rd Hogeschool Saxion
4th Universiteit Twente
5th Maastricht University

Top 5 Websites for Web Accessibility

More than 2 million people have a disability in the Netherlands. For many of those, Digital Accessibility matters. Accessible websites enable anyone, regardless of their age, level of digital competency, or disabilities, to use your website and access its content.

Monsido scans your website to look for potential problems preventing web accessibility. The recommendations for fixing these problems are provided in the following step, which also gives you an overview of how well your website is performing.

We advise achieving an accessibility compliance score of at least 70% for organisations using the Monsido platform in order to demonstrate progress towards compliance. The average score for Higher Education websites in the Netherlands was 71.25%.

These 5 Top Universities in the Netherlands scored highest for Digital Accessibility in 2023.

*Based on the number of WCAG 2.1 A & AA checks passed on the Monsido platform in a 500-page scan.
Ranking University Name Accessibility Compliance*
1st Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht 77.92 %
2nd Hogeschool Inholland 76.92 %
3rd NHL Stenden hogeschool 76.67 %
4th Hogeschool van Amsterdam 75.22 %
5th De Haagse Hogeschool 75.18 %

Top 5 Websites for Content Quality Assurance

The Content Quality Assurance module looks for misspellings, broken links, broken images, and readability issues. By taking on Quality Assurance, you can decrease bounce rates, increase conversions, and improve your SEO, helping (future) students more easily find the information they need about their University or education program.

The websites of Universities in the Netherlands received a 70.57 average rating. The Universities listed below deserve special praise for raising the bar for Content Quality Assurance.

*Based on the number of pages without broken links, broken images, and misspellings.
Ranking University Name Content Quality Assurance*
1st Rijksuniversiteit Groningen 99.6 %
2nd De Hanzehogeschool Groningen 99.2 %
3rd NHL Stenden hogeschool 99 %
4th Universiteit Twente 95.8 %
5th Hogeschool Utrecht 95.6 %

Top 5 Websites for SEO

On-page SEO still plays a significant role in search engine rankings. Common errors like missing H1 tags, broken links and too many internal links on a page can harm your rankings and visitor experience.

The average SEO score for the websites of the Netherlands' higher education websites was 83.41 We applaud the following universities for being leaders in the SEO category.

*Based on the number of pages that are compliant with all Monsido SEO checks.
Ranking University Name SEO Compliance*
1st UMC Groningen 97.06 %
2nd NHL Stenden hogeschool 93.59 %
3rd Hogeschool Arnhem Nijmegen 93.07 %
4th Tilburg University 92.54 %
5th Fontys Hogeschool 89.93 %

Top 5 Websites for Response Time

In addition to improving user experience, having a quick-loading website is important for SEO because Google uses it as a ranking factor. With Monsido's Heartbeat module, you can keep an eye on how well your website is performing to guarantee a positive user experience for your visitors and prevent any potential member annoyance.

The higher education websites in the Netherlands had an average response time of 373.45 ms. Your score must be under 200 ms in order for you to be considered an excellent performer. The top five high education institutions in the Netherlands should be pleased with their exceptional response time results.

*Average response time is based on average response time (ms) over a one week period in Monsido’s Heartbeat module.
Ranking University Name Average response time (ms)*
1st Universiteit Utrecht 52 ms
2nd Universiteit Twente 61 ms
3rd Breda University of Applied Sciences 70 ms
4th Tilburg University 70 ms
5th Fontys Hogeschool 73 ms

Top 5 Websites for Performance Score

Getting a pulse check on the overall website performance score (0–100) based on Google Lighthouse and Core Web Vitals provides a comprehensive view of how visitor location, network speed, and device affect your site's performance.

The average performance rating for this benchmark report was 48.10. We recommend that you aim for a score between 90 and 100. Below is a list of the top five higher education websites in the Netherlands based on this report.

Ranking University Name Performance score (0-100)
1st Wageningen University & Research 84
2nd Amsterdam VUMC 83
3rd Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht 82
4th Avans Hogeschool 73
5th Universiteit Utrecht 70

The Higher Education Websites in the Netherlands That We Tested in This Report

We looked at the websites of the 40 top Higher Education websites in the Netherlands during a 2.5 week period at the end of January 2023.

If you can’t find your university listed below, and are curious about what your website score will look like - you are welcome to request a scan of your website here.

Are you on the list and would you like to receive your in-depth results on all parts of your website?

Let's get in touch and discuss your results!

  • Universiteit Utrecht
  • Universiteit Twente
  • Breda University of Applied Sciences
  • Tilburg University
  • Fontys Hogeschool
  • Erasmus University Rotterdam
  • NHL Stenden hogeschool
  • Amsterdam AMC
  • Maastricht University
  • Amsterdam VUMC
  • UMC Utrecht
  • Wageningen University & Research
  • Hogeschool Inholland
  • Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
  • ArtEZ University of the Arts
  • Universiteit van Amsterdam
  • Hogeschool van Amsterdam
  • De Haagse Hogeschool
  • Zuyd Hogeschool
  • Universiteit Leiden
  • Radboud Universiteit
  • Hogeschool Arnhem Nijmegen
  • Open Universiteit
  • Hogeschool Utrecht
  • UMC Groningen
  • Maastricht UMC+
  • Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
  • Hogeschool Saxion
  • Hogeschool Windesheim
  • Hogeschool Leiden
  • LUMC
  • Technische Universiteit Delft
  • Avans Hogeschool
  • Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht
  • Radboud UMC
  • De Hanzehogeschool Groningen
  • Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  • Hogeschool Rotterdam
  • Erasmus MC
  • Politieacademie

Not on the list at all? We work with 1000s of organizations across many different sectors. We’d love the opportunity to scan your website and see how Monsido could help your organisation. Book a demo with us!

See How Your Website Scored in our Report

See your website's scan results and how your university performed in this report. We can also scan your internal user portal if you need to understand its performance.

An illustration of graphs displaying analytics results inside the Monsido platform

How the rankings work

Monsido:

  • Scanned a sample of 500 pages from the main publicly facing websites of 40 top Higher Education websites in the Netherlands using Monsido’s Web Governance software during a two-week period in January 2023.
  • Ranked the top 40 Higher Education websites in the Netherlands based on their scores in Web Accessibility, Content Quality Assurance, SEO, and Response Time.
  • Calculated the Overall champions based on the average (weighted) ranking in all categories, prioritizing Web Accessibility, then Content Quality Assurance, Response Time, and SEO and Performance.

Improve Your Accessibility Rankings

Benefits of improving accessibility:

Increased Audience

By building an accessible website, you open yourself up to a much larger audience as 1/5 of the world’s population is living with a disability that could prevent them from using your site.

Improved SEO

Many web accessibility standards overlap with good SEO practices like ensuring descriptive alt and title attributes, checking for correct HTML, and offering a site map to users.

Enhanced User Experience and Quality Assurance

Accessibility means creating a website which provides a good experience for everyone, so when you ensure a good experience for users with disabilities, you can rest assured that your overall website experience and quality will improve.

Strengthen Brand Image and Reputation

Committing to accessibility is not just good for your users, but shows you take your social responsibility seriously and can benefit your brand. So make sure to promote your accessibility efforts.

Monsido Accessibility Handbook