Courses for exchange students

As an exchange student, you have to select courses from our exchange study guide. This is a subset of the general study guide. Selecting courses that are not listed in the exchange study guide is not possible. During the first (Fall) semester, you may also choose a minor programme. Below, we will explain both options in more detail. 

For an overview of available courses, please consult our exchange study guide:

Online course guide for exchange students 2025/26

Note that the exchange study guide is subject to change. Courses may be added or removed throughout the academic year.

Please taken note of the following important information:

Do not use the search bar
When you consult the exchange study guide, please make sure to navigate via the headings/lists in the exchange study guide itself. Please do not use the search bar, as this will also give you results from the general study guide, and may lead to courses that are not open to exchange students.

Explaining the academic calendar
At Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the academic year is divided into 2 semesters. Each semester is divided into 3 periods. Semester 1 consists of period 1, period 2 and period 3; semester 2 consists of period 4, period 5 and period 6. Exams take place in the last week of the respective period.

A normal course load is to take 2 courses in the first 2 periods of each semester, and 1 in the last period of each semester. You may skip the last period (P3 / P6), as long as you meet the minimum requirement of being registered for at least 24 ECTS in the first 2 periods of each semester. You may also take up to one additional course per period, as long as you do not exceed the maximum of 36 ECTS per semester.

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 2024/25. 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.

• Anthropology
• Bible Translation in the Digital Age
• Buddhism, Yoga and Spirituality
• Business Administration
• Communication Science
• Decision Making in Business and Society
• Development and Global Challenges
• Digital Humanities and Social Analytics
• E-business and Online Commerce
• Economics
• English
• Entrepreneurship
• Foreign Language Learning
• Gender and Diversity
• Global Health
• History
• Law and Global Justice
• Managing Digital Innovation
• Peace and Conflict Studies
• Peace Theology and Anabaptist-Mennonite Traditions
• Philosophy
• Political Science
• Psychology and the Brain
• Religious Dimensions of Global Challenges
• Risk Management for Financial Institutions
• Spirituality, Yoga and Sustainability
• Sustainability: Global Challenges, Interdisciplinary Solutions
• Sustainability: Management and Innovation
• Technology, Law & Ethics
• Visual Evidence

Please make sure to consult the tab "Admissions" on the minor page to see whether you meet the entry requirements.

• Applied Econometrics: A Big Data Experience for All
• Brain and Mind
• Earth Surface - Track Earth Sciences
• Earth Surface - Track Earth, Economics & Sustainability
• European Urban and Cultural History
• Evolutionary Biology and Ecology
• Five Big Issues in Health (Please note that this minor will only run with a minimum of 20 students; you will be informed in July if the minor will not be offered)
• Genes, Cognition and Behaviour
• Geology and Geochemistry
• Pharmaceutical Sciences

Minors 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

• Amsterdam Global Health
• Cancer-Immune Diseases-Personalized Therapies 
• CVR challenges: Pathological interactions between the cardiovascular and other organ systems
• Medical Research to Clinical Practice
• The Moving Body
• Hot Topics in Neurology and Psychiatry

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 "Academic calendar and registration deadlines").

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. For details about our semester dates, please consult the academic calendar.

Below you can find the deadlines to add and drop courses for the 2025/2026 academic year. Note that only in period 1 you are allowed to change courses in the first week of classes. For all other periods the registration deadline ends a few weeks before the period starts. Also note that if you are enrolled in a minor programme, you are only permitted to drop period 3 courses unless you want to drop the whole minor.

For courses that take place during two periods (courses in period 1+2 or 4+5), the registration deadline of the period in which the course starts always applies (period 1 for period 1+2 courses). If a course lists more than one period, this course is continuous and you must participate in both periods.

Course registration for Fall semester 2025 will start on Monday 21 July 2025. Course registration for Spring semester 2026 will start on Tuesday 9 December 2025.

Course registration deadlines 2025-2026

Dutch grades range from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest). 

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.

Grades of 6 and higher are passing grades. A final mark between 5 and 6 will be rounded to the nearest whole number: final marks below 5.5 are rounded down to a 5.0; final marks of 5.5 and higher are rounded up to a passing grade of 6.0. 

All final marks will be expressed in whole or half marks.

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.

As an exchange student, you must follow 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.