VU Amsterdam runs a single September intake for the MSc Business Administration. The documented deadlines are 1 April for non-EU/EEA applicants who need a visa or residence permit and 1 June for EU/EEA and Dutch-degree holders, with enrolment completed by 31 August to start on 1 September, and VU states flatly that applications received after them cannot be taken into consideration. Those are university-wide dates for applicants with a non-Dutch degree, and VU names its own exceptions — a listed set of programmes gets an extended 15 July deadline for EU/EEA applicants, and MSc Business Administration is not on that list, so 1 June is genuinely this programme's date. There is an earlier pair that matters more if money is part of your decision, and the two are often confused: the scholarship deadline is 1 February, while 1 December is VU's advised date for the programme application itself. The reason is sequencing — the VUFP, HSP and OTS scholarships can only be applied for once you have been conditionally admitted, and an admission decision takes around six weeks, so applying by 1 December is what leaves room to make 1 February. EU/EEA applicants who want university housing are also encouraged to apply before 1 April. Applications for each cycle open from the beginning of October. These dates recur each cycle, but when we checked on 1 September 2026 VU was still publishing the cycle that had just closed, so the 2027 dates shown are projected — verify them on VU's admissions page before you plan around them.
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam – School of Business and Economics has not published dated rounds for the cycle shown, so the 3 dates below are ours — a planning guide, not the school's calendar. Applying early still generally carries higher acceptance odds and earlier scholarship visibility.
| Round | Deadline |
|---|---|
| September 2027 intake — advised programme application if you want a VU scholarship | 1 December 2026 indicative — not published by the school |
| September 2027 intake — non-EU/EEA (needs visa/residence permit) | 1 April 2027 indicative — not published by the school |
| September 2027 intake — EU/EEA & Dutch-degree holders | 1 June 2027 indicative — not published by the school |
All 3 dates above are ours, not Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam – School of Business and Economics's. An indicative date is one the school had not published for this cycle when we last checked, so we projected it from the rounds it runs each year — or, for a school that admits on a rolling basis and publishes no rounds at all, it marks roughly when applying still makes sense. Treat it as a date to confirm, not one to plan against.
What we checked, and when. Re-read on VU's central apply page on 1 Sep 2026. VU dates its deadlines by cycle, and the cycle it currently publishes is the one that has just closed: 1 April 2026 (non-EU/EEA needing a visa) and 1 June 2026 (EU/EEA), with applications for the next round opening "from the beginning of October". The September 2027 dates below are therefore projected one year on and marked indicative. Enrolment must be complete by 31 August to start on 1 September. SCOPE CHECKED 2026-09-04: these are university-wide dates for applicants holding a non-Dutch university degree, and the page names its own exceptions — an extended 15 July deadline for a listed set of (pre)master's programmes, which MSc Business Administration is NOT on, so 1 June is this programme's date. Corrected the same read: 1 December is VU's ADVISED programme-application date, not the scholarship deadline. The scholarship deadline is 1 February, and the VUFP, HSP and OTS awards can only be applied for once you are conditionally admitted — which takes around six weeks — so 1 December is a planning date working back from 1 February. Confirm the 2027 dates on VU's page once October's cycle opens
Frequently asked questions
When are the VU Amsterdam MSc Business Administration deadlines?
Sources
- VU Amsterdam — Master's Business Administration (programme) ↗ — Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- VU Amsterdam — Master's Business Administration: admissions ↗ — Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- VU Amsterdam — Tuition fee rates (statutory) Master's programmes ↗ — Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- VU Amsterdam — Institutional tuition fees Master's 2026-2027 (overview) ↗ — Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- VU Amsterdam — How do I apply for a Master's programme? (central deadlines page: applications open "from the beginning of October"; the cycle still published is September 2026, dated 1 April 2026 for non-EU/EEA needing a visa and 1 June 2026 for EU/EEA. September 2027 dates not yet published). SCOPE CHECKED 2026-09-04: the table is headed "International Degree Holders — Application deadlines" and states "The following deadlines apply if you are applying to a Master's programme on the basis of a non-Dutch university degree" and "Applications received after the deadlines cannot be taken into consideration!" — so it is university-wide by applicant type, not by programme. It names its own exception list, "Extended Deadlines (pre)masters 2026-2027", granting 15 July to specified programmes and stating that "if a Master's programme is not mentioned below, the deadline is 1 June 2026"; MSc Business Administration is NOT on that list, so 1 June is this programme's date. CORRECTED on the same read: 1 December is described as "the advised programme application deadline for all students wishing to apply for one of the VU Amsterdam scholarships", NOT as the scholarship deadline — "The final application deadline for most scholarships is 1 February, but you can only apply for the VUFP, HSP and OTS scholarships after you have been conditionally admitted", and VU advises 1 December because a decision "may take up to around 6 weeks". EU/EEA applicants are also "encourage[d] … to apply before 1 April" for university housing ↗ — Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- VU Amsterdam — Language proficiency requirements for Master's degrees, plus the linked 'English Language Proficiency Overview 26-27' PDF (6 pages, sha256:ab43d44ded5d1a56, read 2026-09-06 with npm run pdf:text), which is where the per-programme numbers actually live. ENGLISH EVIDENCE CHECKED 2026-09-06 (P33c, Dutch leg). Exemptions, verbatim: 'You are exempt from having to take an English Language test if you have completed: A secondary or higher education fully taught in English within Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, UK or USA. A higher education fully taught in English within Singapore or South Africa. A Bachelor's or Master's degree fully taught in English within the EU/EEA. An International Baccalaureate Diploma (English-taught). A Dutch pre-university VWO diploma (including VWO English language and literature) or English at an international equivalent pre-university level.' Note the shape: three different geographies for three different levels of study, with Singapore and South Africa admitted at higher-education level only. India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Bangladesh reach none of them. Evidence: 'If it is clearly stated on a diploma/transcript that your degree was fully English-taught, then this will be sufficient proof. If it is not clearly stated, we request an official statement with stamp and signature from your previous university.' The PDF's row for 'Business Administration (all specialisations)' — this programme — reads IELTS Academic 6.5 overall with 6.0 in each of Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking; TOEFL iBT 92 (Reading 13, Listening 12, Speaking 18, Writing 20) on the old scale or 4.5 (sections minimum 4) on the new one; TOEFL ITP 580 with no minimum section score; CAE 180; CPE 180. VU 'only accepts' IELTS Academic, TOEFL iBT, CAE, CPE and its own EUR 150 VU Taalloket test, and that in-house test 'is not accepted for non-EU/EEA students who require a study visa/residence permit'. IELTS Online, the IELTS Indicator, IELTS One Skill Retake, TOEFL Essentials, TOEFL iBT Home Edition and MyBestScore are all rejected ↗ — Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam