Student Report
Name of the University: University of Amsterdam
Exchange semester: Fall 2014
This student report is written by three students, which did their exchange semester in
Amsterdam, the fall of 2014.
Practical information – before arrival
We got informed that we had been accepted as exchange students at the University of
Amsterdam by email in the end of March. Since then we received all information we
needed by email, and followed a process including applying for housing and courses.
Housing
The University of Amsterdam offers student housing for exchange students through
an organisation called De Key, which is responsible for providing accommodation for
students in Amsterdam. In the middle of May we received an email that invited us to
apply for housing. To be able to get an accommodation offer we needed to prepay an
administration fee of 150 euros in order for them to start the process of finding an
accommodation for us. We also paid a similar fee before accepting the offer we got.
The monthly rent in De Key’s accommodations vary from around 300-600 euros,
depending on your entered preferences. You can expect an offer during the summer,
which you have to accept in order to still be a part of the process. Finding an
accommodation on your own is challenging in Amsterdam and not recommendable.
De Key has several locations in Amsterdam where there are student buildings. Many
of them are very centred located. The typical accommodation is a room/flat in a
building with only internationals students. As we were three friends doing our
exchange together, we asked to live together, or at least in the same
building/neighbourhood. We ended up living in an apartment in a student block,
which was not so luxury but we really enjoyed living among other internationals in
the building.
Costs
In Amsterdam the prices are quite low compared to Norway. The prices relatively to
Norway in grocery stores depend a lot on the products, but you can get a lot more for
your money in general. For a dinner out on a restaurant you pay around 15-20 euros.
-
Approximately how much per month we spent on rent, books, food, transportation,
and other personal expenses
Rent
Books
Food
Transport
Other
NOK 4400
NOK 250
NOK 2500
NOK 50
NOK
Living in Amsterdam
The first thing you should get in Amsterdam is a bike. As the city is so flat and the
city centrum is not that big, you can easily get from A to B using a bike. We paid
around 80 euros for our second-hand bikes, which is a very good investment, as we
hardly ever needed to use anything on public transport.
You will quickly recognize that Amsterdam is a very international city. There are
people from all around the world. Also, the Dutch people are very good speaking
English and are in general very kind people. The city centrum in Amsterdam is
beautiful as it has a lot of canals and nice streets. Within these canals there is a lot of
restaurants, cafes, bars, clubs, museums and shopping possibilities.
The introduction week and social activities
We arrived Monday the 18th of August. De Key provided transportation from the
airport to the apartment, via registration at De Key’s office. The introduction week
started the day after and lasted for four days. It is ISN (International student network)
that arranges this. We got divided into groups of 20-30 students, where the number of
people showing up varied from group to group. We did daily activities as well as
parties at night. The week is well organized and includes a lot of fun activities. We
had different experiences with the introduction week, as the groups we ended up
varied in terms of active participants. But we recommend participating in this group
as you get the opportunity to establish friendships in the very beginning of your stay.
We experienced that most of the students got friends from their introduction weeks
and especially in their student housing.
As well as arranging the introduction week, ISN arranges a lot of events all through
the semester. They arrange the weekly Wednesday Bordell, which is a party for the
international students. It was nice to have this opportunity, especially in the beginning
as we got to meet the international students. ISN also arranges trips to cities in
Europe, different kind of parties and other cultural nights. We also played for the ISN
football team, which was a great experience. We played one match per week against
other student teams. ISN also offers other sport activities.
The ISN plays an important role for many international students in Amsterdam. They
create a great international environment for us exchange students and bring them
together. That was also the reason we chose Amsterdam – the international
environment among the students.
About the school
The University of Amsterdam is the largest university in the Netherlands with over
3000 students divided over seven major faculties. We were a part of the Faculty of
Business and Economics. The UvA has a lot of locations spread all over the city of
Amsterdam, where mostly of them are in the centre. The business school is also
located in the city. There are some major differences of how they do things at UvA
compared to BI. The semester is divided into 3 blocks/periods. We only participated
in the two first blocks (8 weeks each), as the last block is the last 4 weeks in January.
To achieve 30 ECT’s (studiepoeng), you need to pick five courses, each of 6 ECTs.
As the students at UvA normally spread them evenly out on the blocks (2+2+1), we
had to take 3 courses in the last block (block 2).
Another big difference compared to BI is the complexity of how they teach us the
courses. In addition to lectures, they also have tutorials, which is normally a more
exercise-oriented lecture given by a former student. You should also prepare to get
involved in group work where you have to give presentations and/or hand in
assignments. The quality of the teachers varied from course to course.
The grading is also different. The grade system is from 1-10, where you need to have
at least 5,5 to pass. They also usually have different weightings – not only a final
exam. A typical weighting is: Midterm-exam (after 3 weeks) 30%, final exam 70%, or
mixing this with assignments/presentations.
We considered the workload to be quite more than at BI. It was challenging for us to
adapt to the new ways of doing things here and having to work evenly through out the
whole year. The difficulties of the exams were also harder, but that of course depends
on what course and your background knowledge. The tasks on the exam were also
harder to predict, especially in the theoretical courses.
The main building of the faculty of business and economics is a combination of a new
and an old building. It has everything you need, such as group rooms, a big cafeteria,
a library and reading spaces (gets full around 12:00). To use the cafeteria, vending
machines and printers at school you had to have a Dutch VISA.
The courses
The process of applying for courses started in the middle of June. We chose courses
from a list of courses for exchange students. We applied for courses for both of the
blocks before arrival. You should be aware of that you should check the timetable
before choosing courses as lectures and exams may crash. On UvA’s homepage you
can read the course descriptions, where you get info about the course in general,
grading/weights and what courses you should have from before. If you choose to do
2+3 courses, like we did, we recommend choosing easier courses in the block you of
3 courses, as 3 courses in 8 weeks can be challenging.
Here is a view over all the courses we had during the semester:
Course code & name
Advanced Corporate
Finance
Strategic Management
Master/
Bachelor
Bachelor
Bachelor
Intermediate statistics
Bachelor
Public economics
Bachelor
Money and Banking
Bachelor
Finance
Bachelor
International Trade
and Investment
Bachelor
Entrepreneurship and
Innovation
Bachelor
Exam form
2-hours written exam counting
60% and 3 cases (40%)
2-hours multiple-choice exam
(60%), Midterm (20%) and
group assignments (20%)
2,5-hours written exam (70%)
and 2-hours multiple-choice
midterm (30%)
3-hours written exam (60%)
and 2-hours written midterm
(40%)
2-hours exam (both multiplechoice and open questions)
(70%) and 2 cases (30%)
2-hours exam (both multiplechoice and open questions)
(85%) and 2 cases (15%)
2-hours exam (both multiplechoice and open questions)
(70%) and midterm (30%)
3-hours exam (both multiplechoice and open questions)
Approved
as
Comments
Block 1
Block 1
Block 1
Block 1
Block 2
Block 2
Block 2
Block 2
(60%), 2 leading group
discussions (20%) and paper
assignment (20%)
We could choose all the courses on the list, although you should have some
prerequisites in some of the courses. After four semesters at BI the only course you do not
have the necessary prerequisites is advanced corporate finance. So if picking that one, you
should be interested in finance and be ready to work hard. The “finance” course is a nice step
after two years at BI, but that is in block 2, so we didn’t had the chance to have that before
advanced corporate finance, as it is in block 1. If choosing public economics, you should be
interested in microeconomics and math.
We found the finance courses and international trade and investment as the most interesting
courses.
We recommend Amsterdam
We really enjoyed our stay in Amsterdam and highly recommend you to do your exchange
there. It was a really nice experience to be a part of an international environment and we
learned a lot about different cultures, and also improved our English. What we liked the most
was the international environment within the international students. ISN many events and the
way the international students lives together really contribute to international students easily
can establish friendships. We also really liked the city and how the centre is located within
the canals and that it’s not too big. What we found most challenging was adapting to the
system of the university. If you want to find out more or have any questions, feel free to
contact us.