The newspaper of the University of Groningen (UKrant) compared the restaurant prices of ten universities. As it turns out, the least expensive lunch can be had at VU Amsterdam.
For a luxurious soup, a luxurious sandwich and a bottle of coke, you have to fork over 7.49 euros, while the national average is 9.28 euros. Utrecht University is the most expensive of the bunch, charging 10.70 euros for a similar lunch. Because VU Amsterdam has just one soup price, it’s considered a luxurious soup, while other universities differentiate between a basic soup or a luxurious soup. This muddies the comparison somewhat.
No cow milk
There are more interesting differences. TU Delft does not sell cow milk for instance, and at Maastricht University you have to pay extra for cow milk in your coffee – plant milk is the default. And while the sandwiches of VU caterer Eurest are the most affordable, bottles of water and black coffee are more expensive than at other universities.
It’s also curious that the same caterer (VU Amsterdam, Maastricht University and Utrecht University are all catered by Eurest) has set various prices for the same products. A banana costs 92 cents at VU Amsterdam, 71 cents at Utrecht University and 65 cents at Maastricht university. According to Eurest, the prices are set with input from the universities, and each of them has a different contract with Eurest.
Apples and oranges
The ranking should be taken with a grain of salt, because a sandwich with meat or fish could be more expensive than a sandwich with cheese or vegetables. That is why UKrant looked at the average price of luxurious sandwiches at each canteen. The portion size can also differ per university, making it a bit like comparing apples and oranges. Perhaps the more important question is: should you get your lunch at the VU restaurant or at Spar?