Exchange nomination and application

The deadlines for receiving your nomination are:

• 1 April for the Fall semester (September-January) or a whole academic year (September-June);
• 1 October for the Spring semester (February-June).

Please note that details regarding our application procedure cannot be found online. After we have received and approved your nomination, we will send you instructions by e-mail about how to finalize your online application. Application deadlines are as follows:

• 15 April for the Fall semester or a whole academic year;
• 15 October for the Spring semester.

Required documents
As part of our online application, you are required to submit the following documents:

• Copy of passport/ID (must be valid throughout your stay in the Netherlands);
• Passport photo;
• Transcript of records.

Additional Master's courses requirements
All exchange students are expected to have an advanced level of English language proficiency (TOEFL IBT at least 92; IELTS at least 6.5). If you are planning to take Bachelor's courses only, it is not necessary to send us proof of your English proficiency.

However, if you wish to take Master’s courses, you are required to upload additional documents, preferably before 1 June for the first semester or 1 November for the second semester:

• Bachelor's diploma in a relevant field of study. If you have not received your Bachelor's diploma by the time you start classes in Amsterdam, it is also possible to submit a letter from your university indicating that you have earned at least 180 ECTS and/or will graduate before 1 September;
• English proficiency test (see below for minimum requirements).

English language proficiency
Below you can find an overview of the English proficiency tests that we accept, as well as the minimum scores:

• IELTS test: 6.5 overall
  Note: the IELTS Online Academic, the online IELTS Indicator and the IELTS One Skill Retake tests are not accepted.
• TOEFL internet-based test: 92.
  Note: the TOEFL Essentials, the TOEFL iBT Home Edition and MyBestScore tests are not accepted.  
• Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE)/C2 Proficiency: minimum score 180.
• Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE)/C1 Advanced: minimum score 180.

Your English proficiency test must have been taken no more than two years before 1 September of the year in which your exchange starts. 

Exceptions to the English Language Proficiency requirement are made if you have completed your Bachelor's or Master's degree in Canada (English-speaking provinces), USA, UK, Ireland, New Zealand or Australia or if you have completed a Bachelor's or Master's degree fully taught in English within the EU/EEA.

After you have submitted your online application, the incoming exchange team will assess your application. If your application is approved, our services department will start working on your accommodation and visa/residence permit, for which additional documentation is required.

Internships or research (thesis) projects do not fall under the exchange programme at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Nominated exchange students must always either choose a minor programme or follow courses from our exchange study guide (for more information about the course offering, please consult this web page). Exchange students are required to study full-time at VU and must be registered for a minimum of 24 ECTS per semester. Nominations for internships or research projects will therefore be rejected by our office.

If you wish to perform an internship or research project, you will have to arrange it yourself by finding a supervisor. The supervisor in turn will have to arrange your registration at the university.

In some cases it is possible for first-semester exchange students to extend their stay. Please find below the instructions for applying for an extension of your stay. Note that if you are staying at a room via DUWO, you would not be able to rent via DUWO again due to legal constraints. You would likely have to find your own housing but may always reach out to our housing team to see if there are any options.

1. Consult the exchange study guide to get an overview of available courses. Take note of the fact that the course offering in the second semester is generally smaller than in the first semester. Also, minor programmes are not offered in the second semester. And finally, note that you are not allowed to perform an internship or project.
2. Your home university must agree to the extension. Please make sure that your home university sends us an extension request on your behalf to internationalrelations@vu.nl. The deadline to send us a request is 15 November.
3. You will be informed about our decision by email. Expect to receive a message in the second half of November.
4. In case your request is approved, we will extend your exchange registration and contact the services department for housing and/or visa (if applicable).

We would like to emphasize that an approval of your extension request is partly based on the details of the bilateral exchange agreement between VU and your home university. Another factor is that we strive to maintain a balance of incoming and outgoing exchange students. Furthermore, we will take the grades you obtained for your courses in period 1 into consideration as well. As mentioned above, you would likely have to find new housing by yourself.

If your home university does not have a bilateral exchange agreement with VU Amsterdam, we have the following alternative option available to you:

Study Abroad in Amsterdam
You can choose our Study Abroad programme, which consists of the Semester in Amsterdam programme, the VU Amsterdam Summer School and the VU Graduate Winter School. As the names imply, the Semester in Amsterdam programme offers you the possibility to study at VU Amsterdam for a semester or year, while the Amsterdam Summer and Winter Schools offers courses during the summer and winter, respectively.