Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam - VU Amsterdam
speciality: Business and Strategy

Both the student community and faculty are very diverse and we get to put our skills into practice with different skills assessments like case studies and analysis of real-world solutions. The girst year is broad, think topics like global supply chains or marketing cross-borders with cultural sensitivity. Of course there is an international exchange in the final year and you get to spend some time abroad. Its very exciting!

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam provides a remarkable educational experience, with a mix of theoretical and practical courses. It’s fantastic that you’ve been able to delve into your studies with a wide range of topics with everything from the cultural aspects of international business to technology to global economics. The instructors here are exceptional and have worked with international businesses.

First, the campus:
Location:
The university is located in the Amsterdam-Zuid area, where the campus consists of several buildings scattered around the neighbourhood, which is typical for universities in the Netherlands.

Arrival:
The campus is very easily accessible, can be reached in under one hour from any Amsterdam neighbourhood or surrounding cities by public transport. There are however absolutely no parking facilities for cars, which are restricted to the surrounding public parking lots at 6€ per hour. Possible improvements could be to provide such service for students who arrive by car, or at least to provide parking fee reduction models for students and staff, and to facilitate car-sharing through some internal or external media. It is easiest accessible by bicycle or motorbike, both of which can park at the large bicycle stand area in front of the main building.

Comfort:
The architecture is well planned, maps are available, and the campus is overall very easy to navigate once there. Despite the large campus area, one can quickly arrive at any place without problems. However, the room codes can be non-intrinsic at the beginning, and one might need to reflect to interpret the precise location. Regarding food and drinks, The university counts with a cafeteria in the main building, several not too expensive vending machines. There is also a gas station (for e.g. tobacco) and an independent kebab truck, the latter being extremely expensive in regards to the quality, which can be explained by the lack of competition. Toilets are indicated by well-visible signs, can be found at practically every corner of the campus, and usually don´t lack cleanliness.

Housing:
While the university does provide housing opportunities, there is only so much that they can do regarding the global housing crisis, which is especially noticeable in Amsterdam. Waiting times can stretch way over 6 months, and while the student apartments are a lot cheaper than any publicly listed location, they are still priced higher than in most cities and are by far not affordable without a loan, income, or savings. This is however not a blame to be put on the university, since they have always been courteous and do their best to help.

Technology:
The IT structure and internal tools are mentionable, they have recently been even further expanded to adapt to the pandemic and now offer every imaginable service online – from personal dashboards and time management tools, over a highly optimized (and packed with motivated staff) student help desk, to small tools like a lost and found system. Since there is a myriad of tools at the students’ disposition, I cannot analyze each individual software here. Lost items can be collected at the so-called security desk. It is located in the basement of the main building and displays high-end security and CCTV tech alongside an impressively formidable security team which instantly provides a feeling of safety. Furthermore, there is an online campus system, through which resources are made available and teachers can be contacted (and respond quickly).

Resources:
There is a large library available with all required textbooks to be lent, as well as an internal shop offering all the required resources for purchase.

University culture:
It is indeed noticeable that there is a huge diversity as well as mutual respect. There is an overall feeling of mutual respect and openness to learning from other cultural backgrounds. The pool of students and staff is very heterogeneous, with people from all ages, nations, and faiths. Individuality is embraced and cultural interaction is encouraged. There are even prayer rooms available for staff and students of Muslim faith (only Muslim due to the requirement of punctual acts of prayer). Both students and teachers are generally very open and sociable, which is for example reflected in the creation of a WhatsApp group for each workgroup.

The programme:

Admission and registration process: The application is very straightforward, the staff is always available for any inquiries, and the admission officers are open to individual differences and inconveniences, it is probably even possible to be admitted despite lacking the precise technical criteria as long as motivation and uniqueness are convincing. This last characteristic seems omnipresent throughout the programme (maybe throughout the university), there is a sense of interdependency between students, staff, and institutions where each one always remains open to learning from the other and our differences.

Class structure:
Due to the pandemic, most classes were available online. I would say we can divide the subjects taught here into two categories. “soft skill” and “hard skill”, or “qualitative vs. quantitative”, two categories that work together and rely on each other.

The USP:
The aforementioned notion of multi-culture and openness is what makes the whole programme so unique, not only do we “learn from life” and “learn from each other”, but there is even some kind of “metaphysical” sense where learning is not only theoretic but a very intuitive, mind-opening, sometimes meditative, and even transcendental experience. This notion of opening sensitivity is then paired with and backed by the more theoretical subjects, in some way, we first learn to “feel” in order to then be able to “understand”.

Teacher:
While this concept of “living education” has been highly put under pressure due to the pandemic, the teachers are very professional, highly motivated, therein still, or even more so, open-minded, and passionate about their subjects, and handled the situation to perfection providing always the most ideal alternative.

Prospects:
Management by itself is a discipline required in all industries without exception. Therefore, while competition could be fierce, there are lots of different outcomes and further specializations. The discipline is taught here in a unique way, far from the grey classrooms and soul-less textbooks but instead delivered interactively as a real-life, hands-on experience, and from a perspective that definitely allows the graduate to differentiate him/herself from others, more conservative candidates.

Conclusion:
Yes, I highly recommend this programme/university IF the lifestyle suits one’s own individual personality. Minds are opened, borders blurred, and even reality itself opens up to whole new definitions. All in all, the programme and especially the dedicated teacher provide a truly transformative experience, preparing the student to stand out from the crowd both ideologically and technically.

I like how each semester was divided into 3 periods and how the University helps you with housing options and visa applications. There are many classrooms and buildings, the campus has an amazing location. Food options at the campus are kinda lacking, but overall everything is great about this University! I highly recommend it!

Vrije Universiteit is an exceptionally international and diverse university. Located 15 minutes from the centre of Amsterdam, it is easily reachable by public transport or by bike. International Business Administration, my study programme teaches extremely relevant and up-to-date material. While getting to know business administration in a deeper context, we also get a chance to enhance our different skills and talents. There are numerous opportunities after finishing our studies due to the networking and connections we build during our studies, and the great opportunities the university offer to graduates.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam emphasizes the importance of its curriculum and is proud of its flexibility to adapt as needed to elevate educational standards. The institution is dedicated to offering ample facilities, ensuring that students have the resources necessary for a complete learning experience.

– Overly focused on group work while not regulating the group mix: Every single course required you to team up with others to build a group. The group assignment was the biggest part of your final course grade so you wanted to make sure you’re in a group with people who are on the same level in terms of motivation, knowledge, skills and work ethic. Unfortunately, I personally havent been that lucky so my overall GPA suffered a lot from people’s inability to level up their game. (While considering that it often times was me and one or two other people who did all of the work in the end and the lazy part of the group never received any kind of punishment for their behaviour and only benefitted from others’ hard work, I would definitely chose a uni that allows for everyone to shine who wants to shine and the other way around.) I’m usually a fan of working in teams but this experienced has turned me over. Anyhow, the course leaders were not able to mix up groups with easy free-to-get tools available online (not even after asking them repeatedly) so that best performer groups would team up again and again from course to course, leaving no chance for other motivated people to join/improve their performance. On top, professors didnt even react when some people were still left at the end of group-choosing-phase even though they were asked to jump in because no group was willing to take them on.
– Overall level too low: Unfortunately, the VU lets in people who arent even close to being qualified for the Masters I took — some people had studied psychology, engineering and all other kinds of fields before aspiring to obtain a Master in Business Administration. Consequently, the overall level was diminished a lot by the lack of knowledge of those students (which, again, heavily influences your own performance considering everything happens in group work). Additionally, there were a lot of students who werent even close to the actual English level the VU required you to have. Some apparently worked with agencies to “pass” certain English tests whereas others were let in without even having to prove their competency. (For instance, when a professor once asked us to prepare “(…) a couple of slides (…)” a student in my group understood we were to prep two (!) slides. Some other students literally werent even able to properly communicate in English and always only hung out with people from their own country. People’s language skills of course then also affected the group work again (research, preparation of the actual pitch and presenting).) Bottom line is you get the impression they let in everyone and anyone while they present themselves in a different way online!
– I have graduated in summer 2020, however I still havent received an official diploma until this day (end of March 2021); the VU is making excuses with refering that they really really really would like to have a graduation ceremony while the major part of students have accepted that we’re not gonna go back to big events any time soon and would be more than fine (a survey was even conducted!) with receiving their diploma via mail. (Also considering that like half of the class have already moved back to their home countries at this point!) Very disappointed about how they deal with this considering every other university somehow manages.
– The buildings are old, grey and not at all inspiring you to dream… however, the location was nice as you can reach it super well with public transportation services (while also considering it was at the very edge of town).
– Overall, the VU follows a very ambitious goal in regards to that every work you submit must be written and structured strictly according to common research rules which I thought was really nice.
– A lot of really promising student activities were reserved for Dutch-speakers only (e.g. consultancy projects abroad, cultural exchanges abroad; all these kinds of things). On top, it still got communicated to all of the students (about 70% internationals in my class I think) in English, making us getting our hopes up high just so we could find out we werent even eligible to apply later on. The question is: Why would you not make this accessible to everyone? (Every Dutch person I met had at least good English skills, it’s not like they couldnt switch languages very easily.)

Overall, I probably wouldnt apply there again but I have to say I appreciated the experience nevertheless and got a Master’s degree within 10 months after all!