As a 2nd year International Business student who has experienced their first year with online classes (thanks to COVID) and their second year in face to face, I can give a fully transparent and honest review about how my study has been so far.
At the beginning, despite the online classes, the teachers gave their best to teach and support the students where it was possible. Of course, it was more difficult to understand things, and honestly, our passing quote after the first year was not very high with about 20% passing all grades of the first year. You have multiple possibilities to take a resit – so don’t worry if you don’t pass immediately!
At the beginning of my second year, everything was face to face again, and we finally had classes on campus. The campus of Utrecht is huge, both the HU and UU are sharing it. The HU buildings are brand new, modern, and clean.
However, As this second year continued, some problems appeared which were not very visible at the beginning.
– There is a lack of communication among lecturers, semester coordinators and students. This lack of communication affected the lectures, the final assignments and therefore, the grades.
– The quality of lectures is dependent on the lecturer. While some classes have had a great lecturer with a teacher that could explain everything, other classes had teachers that have never taught the subject before. Therefore, these classes had disadvantages, leading to bad grades or inequality among the classes.
– International Business is a very broad program. This leads to advantages and disadvantages. Advantages are that you get to know many different areas of the business world, as most things are covered. However, this is also the disadvantage. Because so many different topics are taught, you do not go too deep into a specific area, which makes me personally feel insecure about different topics (because I just do not know enough of one single topic).

I wish I had known this from the beginning before I started studying at the HU. Despite these disadvantages, it is overall a good university with a lot of international students, group projects that showcase the real business world and most final assignments consist of group reports and presentations, instead of exams where everything has to be memorized.
Besides, a big advantage of this study is that you get the opportunity to go abroad three times. Within the program, there are two internships and one semester study abroad.

The city of Utrecht is a beautiful student city with many cafes, bars and restaurants!

I hope I was able to give better insights into some pros and cons when studying International Business at the HU!
Good luck!

Having entered the second year of my study (International Business FT), here is what I have seen so far. The course is designed to give students like myself, an idea of what is happening out there. Instead of taking tests and memorizing text; you are presenting proposals, writing academic reports and even doing primary market research. The program is designed to give you experience, and if you think you can keep up, join the Fast Track Program, where you save a year, despite going on two internships and semester abroad.

Sure, the first semester is straightforward; but moving forward, your time management skills become essential, and teamwork only increases. In a matter of months, you face a consistently changing, yet rewarding environment. The culture here is engaging and creative, where study coaches and professors not only guide, but encourage their students to implement out-of-the-box thinking to creative solutions, particularly in sustainability (PPE).

Now, for the practical student concerns: Housing on campus is provided for first years, at least 8 lanes of public transport, parks and bars spread across remote campus and most importantly, the food is affordable, yet