The history of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) dates back to 1632. Today, with more than 30,000 students, nearly 6,000 employees and a budget of almost 500 million euros, the UvA is one of the larger comprehensive universities in Europe. Its seven faculties conduct teaching and research in the humanities, social sciences, economics and business, law, natural sciences, medicine and dentistry.
The UvA has a broad academic curriculum, including more than 60 Bachelor's programmes in all areas of scholarship, from Art History to Artificial Intelligence and from Earth Sciences to Astronomy. The Bachelor's programmes focus on offering a broad and socially relevant education. Students can devote six months to a second discipline during the Bachelor’s phase, to further develop themselves or qualify for a Master’s programme.
As a research university, the UvA considers its selection of more than 200 Master's programmes as a key component of its academic enterprise. Teaching at the UvA reflects the current state of scholarship and students are brought into contact with this research, particularly in the Master’s phase. The UvA is an international centre of education that attracts students from across the European Union and beyond. Consequently, many of its Master’s programmes are taught in English. The UvA benefits from strong ties with Amsterdam, a relatively small city that has been a breeding ground for business and cultural developments and innovation for centuries. The large and diverse labour market and the extensive cooperation with the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, University of Applied Sciences also enhance its appeal to students.
The UvA offers students an inspiring academic environment in a metropolis teeming with cultural and social activities. The student population is heterogeneously composed and reflects the ever-increasing globalisation of education. The UvA has an excellent reputation for research both nationally and internationally. The quality of its researchers is confirmed by the quality assessments of external evaluators. The UvA is also successful in competition for national and international research funds and is a valued partner in many international research projects.
The UvA is a member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), a network of leading European research universities. Approximately 7,500 scientific papers are published annually by UvA staff. In many disciplines its basic academic research ranks among the international top. The diverse applied research programmes are often multidisciplinary in nature and focus on social issues.
The UvA is closely linked to the cosmopolitan city of Amsterdam, has an open eye for local issues and problems and seeks to contribute to finding their solutions. In short, the UvA is a large, vibrant, internationally oriented research university.