Student review [#20600] for Culture, Organization, and Management
at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam - VU

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.