Bicycles clatter along cobbled streets, students drink coffee in sunny squares and a river runs through the city. But this is not Oxbridge or Durham. This is Maastricht University in the Netherlands — an English-speaking college offering degrees at half the price of English tuition fees.

Close to the borders of Belgium and Germany, the university has students from all over Europe but only a handful from the UK, despite being a short journey from the Channel Tunnel. “We miss the British,” says Professor Rein de Wilde, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences.

Maastricht is most famous for the 1992 treaty that created the European Union and gave birth to the euro. The treaty’s association with greying politicians has tainted Maastricht since but this reputation masks a lively and picturesque city. The cosmopolitan university, housed in historic buildings, provides a highly credible alternative to higher education in Britain, professors and students say.

Tens of thousands of good students will miss out on university in the UK this September because of the unprecedented number applying. Dr Jo Ritzen, president of Maastricht University, is encouraging British students to see this as an opportunity to study overseas instead.

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“The students will report back that this was the best thing that ever happened to them,” he says. “They will congratulate the UK government for limiting places and giving them the chance to study in Europe.”

A few groundbreakers have already made their way across the Channel and are taking their degrees here. Alexandra Chorlton, 19, had offers from three UK universities but chose Maastricht because it was the cheapest and the most international option.

“I have never regretted the decision,” she says. “I knew that you could do an exchange in many more countries than you could in the UK.” Chorlton, like all her classmates, is going overseas this summer to a partner university. She will spend a semester studying in Perth, Australia.

“You get an international experience for next to no money,” she adds. “If you’re coming from the UK you do have to be a bit brave to go abroad. Once you get here it’s really worth it.”

So what’s the nightlife like? She grimaces — “Well, there are lots of house parties.” Hardcore clubbers would not be happy here as the scene is not equivalent to big cities in the UK. Most places close by 2am.

The Netherlands is renowned for its coffee-shop culture with a plentiful supply of legalised drugs. “When you arrive,” says Ariane Sketcher, 21,“a lot of students are like ‘wahey!’ but I don’t think about it any more.”

After all the partying there is still work to be done. Students learn in small groups of 12. They discuss the week’s question before going away to read more widely and come back together to thrash out an answer. This problem-based learning technique, complemented by a weekly lecture, is best suited to arts subjects rather than degrees that leave little room for debate, such as maths.

Dr Louis Boon, dean of University College Maastricht, says: “Group work ensures that students put in the effort. They get motivated to look into something because they realise they don’t know about it.”

The advantages

• Tuition fees 1,620 (£1,400) — less than half the cost of British universities

• Study groups of 12 All students spend a semester in a university abroad International students can do paid work for up to ten hours a week

• Easy access to Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris or London as well as Brussels, Liège, Aachen, Cologne and Düsseldorf

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