Below is an overview of course offerings and minor programmes available to incoming exchange students.
Exchange students must select courses from our exchange study guide. Selecting courses from our regular Bachelor's or Master's programmes is unfortunately not possible.
Online study guide for exchange students 2023/24
The exchange study guide for academic year 2024/25 will be published in April.
Note that the exchange study guide is subject to change. Courses may still be added or removed from the exchange study guide in the coming months.
Courses taught in Dutch
If you wish to take Dutch-taught courses, you need to be sufficiently proficient in the Dutch language (C1 level). Attaining such a level of proficiency usually takes several years of study. If you wish to take courses taught in Dutch, please contact us at incoming@vu.nl.
Courses for students from PPE partner universities
If you are a PPE student from one of our PPE partners, you are allowed to also choose some courses from our PPE Bachelor's programme. Here you can find the overview of second-year PPE courses 2023/24. Note, however, that your choice is limited to the second-year courses within the Track Philosophy 2nd Year, the Track Political Science 2nd Year & the Track Economics 2nd Year.
We encourage exchange students to follow one of our minor programmes rather than piecing together their own schedule. Minors are pre-packaged selections of approximately five related Bachelor's courses that span the entire first (or Fall) semester. Most minors are Interdisciplinary and so are open to students from any background, however some minors do have prerequisites and can only be found under the faculty that offers it. One big advantage of selecting a minor is that you will not have overlapping classes in your schedule. Also, minors show a focused area of study, so you can add them to your CV.
Please note that these minor programmes have specific entry requirements
Minors Behavioural and Human Movement Sciences
Minors Economics and Business Administration
Minors Earth and Life Sciences
Minors Sciences
Minors Social Sciences
Minor Programmes Faculty of Medicine VU
VU partner exchange students who wish to apply need to have completed at least 90 ECTS in a relevant programme, for example medicine, biomedicine, psychobiology, technical medicine, medical biology, liberal arts & sciences or biopharmaceutical sciences. Please mind that some tracks are only open to medical students, and acceptance also depends on the availability of sufficient spots. More information: Minor within electives - International Minors Medicine
Many Bachelor's and Master's courses have specific entry requirements, which you can find in the exchange study guide.
In addition to course specific entry requirements, students interested in following Master’s courses must also meet the admission requirements for the Master’s degree programme to which the course belongs. This includes a copy of your Bachelor’s diploma and submitted proof of an English proficiency test.
For more information please see our nomination and application procedure.
The International Office will ask you submit your course selection in advance. If approved, your course list will be made available in your VU dashboard. Please note that you must still register for courses yourself in VU.nl. Course registration for the first semester of each academic year will start in July. Course registration for the second semester will start in December. Any changes to your course selection must be emailed to incoming@vu.nl before the registration deadlines (see "Semesters and periods").
When you register for courses, you must also register for work groups (if applicable) and for the first exam. In the event of failing a course, you must register for the resit examination at least two weeks prior to the examination date.
All exams and resits must be taken at the specified date, time and location. This means it is unfortunately not possible to take exams and resits from abroad.
We unfortunately also do not accommodate requests for a remote (home university) exam during your exchange in Amsterdam.
At Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the academic year is divided into 2 semesters. Each semester is divided into 3 periods:
Academic year 2023-2024
| 1st semester (Fall) | Calendar dates | Course registration & deadlines | De-registration deadline |
| Period 1 | 4 September - 27 October | 17 July until 11 September | 11 September |
| Period 2 | 30 October - 22 December | 17 July until 2 October | 6 November |
| Period 3 | 8 January - 2 February | 17 July until 11 December | 15 January |
| 2nd semester (Spring) | |||
| Period 4 | 5 February - 29 March | 11 December until 15 January | 12 February |
| Period 5 | 1 April - 31 May | 11 December until 4 March | 8 April |
| Period 6 | 3 June - 28 June | 11 December until 6 May | 10 June |
For details about our semester dates, please consult the academic calendar.
Dutch grades range from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest). Grades of 5.5 and higher are passing grades. The highest grade, 10, is very rarely awarded. An 8 is considered a high mark and a 7 is more common. Grades from 1 to 3 are also quite rare.
| ECTS % | Quality Assessment | Dutch grade |
| 10% | Excellent/Very good | 8.0 - 10.0 |
| 25% | Good | 7.5 - 7.9 |
| 30% | More than satisfactory | 7.0 - 7.4 |
| 25% | Satisfactory | 6.5 - 6.9 |
| 10% | Sufficient | 5.5 - 6.4 |
| Fail | 0.0 - 5.4 |
VU Amsterdam uses the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) which is based on the workload students should have in order to achieve expected learning outcomes. ECTS is based on the principle that 30 ECTS credits measure the workload of a full-time student during one semester (and 60 ECTS for a full academic year). In addition, each ECTS credit is equivalent to 28 study hours (which includes both classroom hours as well as self-study). Most courses are 6 ECTS credits.
If you are nominated on a faculty contract, you are expected to follow the majority of your courses at that faculty with a minimum of 18 ECTS out of 30. Additionally, you are allowed to follow 12 ECTS at other faculties, provided you have the relevant academic background. As an exchange student, you must take a minimum of 24 ECTS credits per semester (or 48 ECTS for the whole academic year).
The Department of Dutch as a Second Language (NT2 Academy) offers extensive Dutch language courses for exchange students. These courses cover eight weeks and take place two evenings a week. In addition to attending these class hours students are also expected to commit at least five hours of self-study per week. Exchange students can obtain 3.5 ECTS for completing this course. Please note that there are costs involved. As an (exchange) student you get a discount on the course fee.
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