Master of Science in Business Administration

Radboud University’s Master of Science in Business Administration is a one-year, fully English-taught Master in Management at the Nijmegen School of Management — the university’s AACSB-accredited business school.¹ ⁵ It is a genuine pre-experience degree — no work experience required — and, as a Dutch public university, it charges regulated tuition: roughly €2,694 a year for EU/EEA students and €18,873 for non-EU/EEA students in 2026/27.⁴

Overview

Radboud University (founded in 1923) is a comprehensive research university in Nijmegen, in the east of the Netherlands. It sits in the leading group of universities worldwide — 154th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026 and 279th in the QS World University Rankings 2026 — and its business school, the Nijmegen School of Management, holds the AACSB accreditation.⁵ ⁶

Two honest framings matter before you shortlist it. First, unlike a one-year British conversion master, this is not an open-to-any-discipline programme: it expects a business-administration or closely-related bachelor on entry, with a separate pre-master’s route for other backgrounds (see Admissions).³ Second, on rankings we are deliberately careful — the MSc in Business Administration is not listed with its own position in the Financial Times Masters in Management table, and we could not verify a specific QS Business Masters: Management position for it, so we do not quote a programme rank we cannot source. Judge it on the university’s standing, the school’s AACSB accreditation, its cost and fit rather than a single league-table number.

Curriculum & structure

The MSc in Business Administration is one year, full-time — 60 EC (ECTS) — taught in English at Radboud’s Nijmegen campus, with a September start.² Rather than one fixed syllabus, the degree is offered through seven specialisations, each a distinct one-year track that leads to the same MSc:¹

• Strategic Management — strategy, competitive advantage and the direction of the firm.
• International Business — managing across borders, markets and cultures.
• Marketing — consumer behaviour, brand and marketing strategy.
• Digital Management — managing technology, data and digital transformation.
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship — new ventures, innovation and growth.
• Organisation Design and Change Management — structure, culture and organisational change.
• Strategic Human Resources Leadership — people, leadership and HR strategy.

You choose the specialisation that matches your career direction; each shares the school’s core methods, research training and a master’s thesis.¹ The Nijmegen School of Management frames its mission as “Responsible Governance for Sustainable Societies,” so sustainability and responsible-management themes run through the teaching and research.⁵

Admissions

Admission turns on your prior degree rather than on a standardised test as a rule — though Radboud can ask for one. Direct access is open to holders of a research-university bachelor in Bedrijfskunde/Business Administration (Radboud’s own BSc, or a comparable degree from another research university) and to Radboud’s Law and Management graduates.³ Applicants with an HBO (university-of-applied-sciences) degree or an unrelated bachelor are not turned away, but they enter through a separate pre-master’s programme that brings them up to speed before the master proper.³ So this is not a conversion master in the British sense; if you studied something unrelated and want to switch straight into management, a conversion-style MiM — see our guide to a MiM without a business degree — is usually the better fit.

On testing, there is no blanket GMAT requirement, but based on your academic background Radboud may require a GMAT Focus Edition (≥565), a classic GMAT (≥600) or a GRE (315, quantitative 158).³ In practice, direct-admission candidates from a relevant business bachelor are usually admitted on the strength of that degree, while a test is more likely to be asked of borderline profiles — which is why we treat Radboud as GMAT-possible rather than GMAT-free.

The requirements Radboud publishes are:² ³

• A research-university bachelor in business administration or a closely related field for direct entry — otherwise the pre-master’s route;
• A GMAT or GRE only if Radboud requests one for your background (indicative minimums above);
• Evidence of English proficiency — IELTS Academic 6.5 or TOEFL iBT 90, with sub-score minimums;
• No work experience required — a genuine pre-experience master for recent graduates.³

You apply through Studielink and Radboud’s own online application. The deadlines depend on your background: roughly 1 April for non-EEA citizens (who need the longer lead time for a residence permit), 1 May for EU/EEA citizens with non-Dutch prior education, and about 1 July for Dutch-diploma holders; the scholarship deadline is earlier, around 31 January.³ Because these are the university’s rounds — and a pre-master’s route adds its own earlier timeline — confirm the exact current-cycle deadline for the Business Administration master on Radboud’s application page, and map your timing against the wider field on our deadline tracker.

Fees & cost

As a Dutch public university, Radboud charges regulated tuition, and the amount depends on your nationality. For 2026/27 the statutory fee for EU/EEA students is €2,694 for the full one-year, 60-EC programme (it was €2,601 in 2025/26), while non-EU/EEA students pay the institutional fee of €18,873 for the year.⁴ So an EU/EEA applicant pays only a nominal amount for a one-year AACSB-accredited master, and even the non-EU fee undercuts most elite private grande écoles. See where that lands in how much a MiM in Europe costs, the low-cost & tuition-free MiM guide and our public vs private MiM comparison.

These are Radboud’s published 2026/27 rates — always confirm the exact figure for your nationality and specialisation on Radboud’s own tuition pages, since fees change each cycle. The real budget line for most students is living in Nijmegen; a non-EU student must also show proof of sufficient means to obtain a student residence permit, and can look at the Radboud Scholarship Programme and other Dutch scholarships. For the wider funding picture, see how much a MiM in Europe costs.

Class profile & careers

Radboud does not publish a Financial-Times-style class profile (cohort age, average test scores, nationality counts) or a weighted-salary outcome figure for the MSc in Business Administration specifically, so — as with any programme where the numbers aren’t published — we don’t invent one.¹ What is documented is the school’s aim: to prepare graduates for management and leadership roles across business, consulting and the public and non-profit sectors, in line with its “Responsible Governance for Sustainable Societies” mission.⁵ The Netherlands is one of the most English-friendly graduate-recruiting markets in continental Europe, and Nijmegen sits within reach of the country’s business centres and the German border. For what MiM graduates in the Netherlands typically earn and where they land, see our Netherlands MiM career outcomes analysis and our guide to working in the Netherlands after a European MiM, and confirm current outcomes with the school’s own careers service. You can also weigh Radboud against the other Dutch options in the best MiM in the Netherlands guide, across the Netherlands hub, and against the wider field on the full rankings.

Every hard fact above is sourced to Radboud University’s own pages and AACSB’s accreditation directory (see Sources), retrieved July 2026. Fees, deadlines, entry requirements and rankings change each cycle — always confirm the current details on the school’s official programme and admissions pages before you apply.