Ambitious students are no longer satisfied with the single choice of the local university. Higher education has gone global, says Professor Jacques van der Gaag, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Amsterdam (UvA).

"They search the web to find the education that fits their ambitions, talents and budgets. And they find the best fit wherever it is being offered," says Van der Gaag.

Located just off the leafy Plantage Middenlaan on the edge of Amsterdam's canal belt, UvA's Amsterdam Business School (ABS) has set its sights on being a prominent part of the 'global university'.

Professor Bill Rees

The ABS strategy is all about continued development. The key elements of this are internationalisation, building corporate links and gaining accreditation for its courses.

BRIC(K)

Business commentators are speculating a lot about the expected importance of the BRIC(K) countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Korea (to make the acronym work).

"For our students the prospect of competing with internationally orientated, hard-working and well-educated graduates from outside Europe is very real. It is made doubly demanding by the recent expansion of the European Union," says Professor Rees. 
ABS meets the criteria that the subject matters of research and the teaching be international.

However, many of ABS's students don't avail of the opportunity to study abroad and the School has a relatively low percentage of non-Dutch students.

ABS thinks there are two main reasons. The first is that it can be difficult for students to find space in their studies to take a trip abroad. To address this, ABS has decided bachelor level students in Business Economics will find a convenient semester in their second or third year where the study abroad can be integrated into their studies without losing time.

Additionally, ABS is working top develop a set of double degrees with other universities. An arrangement for the Organisational Economic students with Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona is the first. 

Non-Dutch students

Professor Rees is aware however that creating the "international classroom" also necessitates attracting more students from outside the Netherlands. "Now that we have an undergraduate programme in English and most of our master level programmes are also delivered in English this has become feasible."

As from 2006/2007 all masters level teaching at ABS is in English, except for those that are essentially Dutch in nature. At Bachelors level a Business Economics programme, and from 2006/2007 Business Studies will be available in English alongside Dutch language programmes.

Accreditation

Business schools can be as different as apples and oranges; no two are necessarily equal. This makes it vital to be recognised by the appropriate accreditation body.  A panel of the European Quality Label for International Business Schools (EQUIS) visits ABS in November to complete its assessment.

Professor Rees is under no illusion that the assessment will be easy but he is confident that the ABS can, following far-reaching reform and development, gain the approval of the prestigious accreditation body.

Corporate links are another important pillar for a business school. Professor Rees feels this is an area in which the ABS is already doing well. He hopes to further build on these links through the Amsterdam Center for Entrepreneurship (ACE).

This is a partnership between the Amsterdam School of Economics (ASE) and the ABS. Dr Mirjam van Praag has been appointed to lead ACE and her mission is to strengthen the climate of entrepreneurship, and to establish a bridge between the international academic world and the corporate life and policy makers in the Netherlands.

Amsterdam MBA

Professor Ans Kolk

"On 8 September we expect around 30 students to come to the Amsterdam Business School for the official start of The Amsterdam MBA. This is an increase of approximately 40 percent compared to our first intake," says Mervin Bakker, Manager of International Programmes.

"The number of applications has shown similar growth, meaning that we have been able to remain very selective. Our recruitment efforts are all the more remarkable if compared with the global trends that show a decline in applications for most types of MBAs in the past three years." 

Bakker said it looks as if the MBA course will have 17 different nationalities. About 30 percent from the students will come from Asia, 30 percent from Europe, 20 percent from North and South America and 20 percent from Africa.

Mervin Bakker

It looks as if there will be 15 different nationalities represented in the Masters of International Finance (MIF) classclass from all over the globe — 40 percent from Asia, 20 percent from the EU, 20 percent from other European countries, and 20 percent from North and South America.

The faculty is also very international. "Our students can expect to be taught by professors from the Netherlands, Mexico, the United States of America, India, Britain, France, Australia, Belgium, among others."

The Amsterdam MBA and the MIF courses were enhanced by the receipt of NVAO (Dutch Flemish Accreditation Organisation) accreditation this year. "The international programmes of the ABS are among the first programmes in the Netherlands to obtain this kind of accreditation, an indication of the high quality of the programmes," Bakker adds.

15 August 2006

[Copyright Expatica 2006]

Subject: Higher education in the Netherlands