The Master programme Business Administration is open to motivated students with a university bachelor's degree that provides relevant knowledge in Business Administration. Also, we take into account your motivation, prior relevant work experiences, and any relevant volunteering experiences and/or citizenship behaviors.
You need to have successfully completed courses and studied literature related to the core of the programme/specialization with at least:
- 12 EC in Research Methods
- 12 EC in Business Administration
See the details per specialization below.
Research Methods (12 EC)
You need to have successfully completed courses and studied literature related to the research methods of this programme, covering:
- An intermediate-level understanding of the foundations of qualitative (e.g., interviewing, observations) and quantitative (e.g., reliability, validity, correlations, factor analyses).
- Example text book: Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill (2019). Research Methods for Business Students, 8th Edition. Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limited/Prentice Hall.
Business Administration (12 EC)
You need to have studied literature and successfully completed 12 EC in Business Administration, with some EC related to the subject of the specialization:
International Management
- Course in International Management
- Example text book: C. Hill (2023). International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace. 14th edition, McGraw-Hill Education.
Leadership and Change Management
- Courses in Organizational behavior/ Organization Theory/ Strategic Management.
- Example text books:
- Sinding et al. (2016). Organisational Behaviour. 6th edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill
- Brehm, S. S. Kassin, S. M., & Fein, S. (2004). Social Psychology. 6th edition. New York: Houghton Mifflin
- Jaffee, D. (2008). Organization Theory: Tension and Change. London: McGraw-Hill
- Hitt, M. A., Ireland, D. R., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2014). Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization – Concepts and Cases, 11th Edition. Stamford: South-Western College Pub
Management Consulting
- Courses in Strategy/ Organizational Theory and Change
- Example text books:
- De Wit, B. (2021). Strategy: An international Perspective. 7th Edition. Cengage Learning, UK
- Jones, G.R. (2012) Organizational Theory, Design and Change. 7th edition, Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall
- O’Mahoney and Mangham (2013) Management Consultancy 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Strategic Human Resource Management
- Courses in Human Resource Management and Organization Behavior
- Example text books:
- Sinding et al. (2016). Organisational Behaviour. 6th edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill
- Kinicky (2020). Organizational Behavior. A Practical, Problem-Solving Approach. 3rd edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill
- Management Noe et al. (2022). Fundamentals of Human Resource Management. 9th edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill
- Boselie and van der Heijden (2024). Strategic Human Resource Management: A Balanced Approach. 3rd edition. McGraw-Hill.
Strategy and Organization
- Courses in International Strategy/ Strategic Management
- Example text books:
- De Wit, B. (2021). Strategy: An international Perspective. 7th Edition. Cengage Learning, UK.
- Hitt, M. A., Ireland, D. R., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2019). Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization – Concepts and Cases, 13th Edition. Cengage Learning, UK.
Do you want to know if you’re directly admissible to the specialization of your choice, please apply via Studielink and upload your application file in your VU Dashboard. The admission board will assess your request and send you an admission decision. If there’s a lack of previous knowledge this admission decision also contains a tailor-made transfer programme for you.
Do you want to check your admissibility for more than one specialization? Please apply for one specialization via Studielink/VU.nl and send an email per specialization including your application file to admissions.sbe@vu.nl.
With a bachelor's degree in (International) Business Administration, Economics or Econometrics from a Dutch university other than VU Amsterdam, you can review your admissibility here.
Please note: this information is only meant as an indication of your admissibility. No rights can be derived from this table. In order to obtain a personalized, official admission decision, students should apply for the master via Studielink (without obligation) to find out if additional courses need to be completed. Every application will be reviewed individually by the Admission Board. The final admission decision may differ from the indication in this table. If your programme is not listed, feel free to apply.
