Entry requirements
Business Economics
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International applicants
The online application is now closed for our international applicants. The entry requirements specified below apply to the September 2015 Intake. These may be subject to change for the September 2016 Intake. We will update the requirements in October 2016.
1. Academic Bachelor's degree
- Applicants are expected to hold an academic Bachelor's or Master's degree in Business Economics, with a specialisation in Finance, Organisation Economics, Real Estate Finance or relevant field. A Bachelor's degree from a university of applied sciences or a Fachhochschule (Germany) will not be taken into consideration. Specific entry requirements apply to Chinese students and African students.
- For the Finance and Real Estate Finance specialisations the following courses are strict entry requirements: 1. Investment & Portfolio Theory; 2. Advanced Corporate Finance; and 3. Econometrics. It is required to upload course descriptions of these courses in your online application.
- For the Organisation Economics specialisation knowledge of internal organisation (quantitative HRM) and of industrial organisation, micro economics or advanced corporate finance are strict entry requirements.
- Applicants with Bachelor's degrees in other areas must have knowledge of microeconomics, macroeconomics, mathematics and statistics at foundation-year level. In addition, applicants must have a command of business economics equivalent to that provided in the UvA core courses in Finance and Management Accounting. Basic knowledge of monetary and international economics is also an asset.
2. Motivation and initiative
Applicants are expected to have the intrinsic motivation to test and build upon this knowledge. Coursework is designed in keeping with this expectation and demands significant personal initiative and an active contribution on the part of the student.
3. English language proficiency
We require evidence of English language proficiency:
- Minimum score TOEFL test: 92, at least 20 on each sub-score (237 computer-based/580 paper-based test, reporting number 0398)
- Minimum score IELTS-test: 6.5, at least 6 on each sub-score
- Minimum score Cambridge International Examinations: A (FCE), B (CAE), B (CPE)
Applicants with a Dutch Bachelor’s degree, or who have obtained their diploma or degree in a country where English is the native language are exempted from the English proficiency test. For more information on test procedures and exemptions see here.
4. GRE
A GRE is compulsory for all applicants to the Master's programme in Business Economics. For registration please refer to the GRE website. The institution code for GRE is 6739, Amsterdam Business School.
In the following cases we also accept a GMAT test:
- if you have already obtained a GMAT score
- if it's difficult in your country to take the GRE test on a short notice (e.g.
China, Taiwan)
Exemptions
Students that come from one of our partner universities are exempted from
taking the GRE test. Please refer to the
list
of partner universities.
Applicants from another Dutch faculty/university
1. Academic Bachelor's degree
- All applicants holding a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Business Economics
from a Dutch university are eligible for admission to the Master's programme.
However for the specialisations:
- Finance and Real Estate Finance, courses in 1.Investment & Portfolio Theory; 2. Advanced Corporate Finance; and 3. Econometrics are strict requirements. It is required to upload course descriptions of these courses in your online application.
- Organisation Economics, courses in internal organisation (quantative HRM), industrial organisation, mico economics and/or advanced corporate finance are strict requirements. This will be evaluated on the basis of the university transcript of grades. - Students holding a Bachelor's or Master's degree from a Dutch university in
Economics or Business Administration with a specialisation in business economics
can apply for admission.
- For all specialisations students need to have obtained basic courses in: management accounting, monetary economics, international economics and econometrics.
- for the specialisations Finance and Real Estate Finance: courses in investment & portfolio theory and advanced corporate finance are a strict entry requirement. It is required to upload course descriptions of these courses in your online application.
- for the specialisation Organisation Economics: courses in internal organisation (quantitative HRM) and of industrial organisation, micro economics or advanced corporate finance are strict entry requirements. - Certain bachelor's degrees give direct access to the MSc Business Economics programme.
- No pre-Master's programme for Business Economics is available for students holding a Bachelor's degree in other areas and who fail to meet (some of) the admission requirements.
2. Motivation and initiative
Applicants are expected to have the intrinsic motivation to test and build upon this knowledge. Coursework is designed in keeping with this expectation and demands significant personal initiative and an active contribution on the part of the student.
Applicants from a Dutch university of applied sciences (HBO)
Students holding a Bachelor's degree from a Dutch university of applied sciences cannot be unconditionally admitted to the Master's programme Business Economics. You first have to obtain an academic Bachelor's degree in Business Economics. No pre-Master's programme is available.
Applicants from Economics and Business
Unconditional eligibility
Students holding a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Business with a specialisation in Finance are eligible for admission to the Master's programme in Business Economics, specialisation Finance and specialisation Real Estate Finance.
Students holding a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Business with a
specialisation in Organisation Economics are unconditionally eligible for
admission to the Master's programme in Business Economics, specialisation
Organisation Economics.
Here
you can find more information about the admissions procedure.
Conditional eligibility
Students with a different Bachelor's programme at Economics and Business might need to take extra courses, see below.