Students must meet the following admission requirements : 1. Academic requirements Your previous education needs to be deemed equivalent to at least a Dutch academic Bachelor’s degree ( wetenschappelijk onderwijs, WO ) obtained at a research university (nominal duration 3 years). Please find more information about your admissibility with a non-Dutch degree here . Professional certificates in finance (CFA, FRM or CF1) are not accepted as a substitute for a qualifying academic degree. In combination with a qualifying academic degree in another field, those certificates may be accepted for meeting some of the programme specific requirements below. 2. Programme specific requirements We expect you to have successfully completed courses based on the following literature, or equivalent: Mathematics An intermediate-level course that covers among others the concepts of i) differentiation and optimization of functions of one and more variables ii) working with limits, sequences and series iii) analytically optimizing functions, calculating (partial) derivatives iv) working with interest rates and discount rates v) the basics of matrices. Example text book: Sydsaeter, Hammond and Strom: Essential Mathematics for Economic Analysis, Prentice Hall, or equivalent Statistics An intermediate-level course that covers among others topic such as: understanding of i) data and descriptive statistics ii) probability theory iii) confidence intervals, iv) principles of hypothesis testing, and iv) sound understanding of multi-variate regression analysis. Example text book: Berenson, Levine, Szabat: Basic Business Statistics, Pearson, or equivalent Investments An intermediate-level course in Investments, covering among others topics such as portfolio optimisation and diversification, CAPM, and factor-based pricing models. Example text book: Bodie, Kane, and Marcus: Investments, or equivalent Corporate Finance An intermediate-level course in Corporate Finance, covering topics such as capital structure theory and company valuation methods. Example text book: Berk & DeMarzo: Corporate Finance, Pearson, or equivalent Financial Markets and Institutions (Not a strict requirement but recommended) An intermediate-level Course that explains among others the building blocks of financial institutions and regulation, including central banks and depository banks. Example text book: Mishkin, Matthews and Guiliodori: Economics of Money, Banking and Financial Markets, Pearson or equivalent How to demonstrate that you meet the above requirements You are required to indicate in the course description section of the Application Form how you meet the programme specific admission requirements. Whether you meet the admission requirements, is determined by the Admission Board based on your complete application. 3. English-language proficiency requirements You will have to demonstrate sufficient English language proficiency. You can find an overview of relevant information to demonstrate your English language proficiency on the language requirement page .
To apply you are required to provide the following documents: Scan of your passport or national ID card (ID for EEA students only) valid at the start date of the programme Master Application File please download the correct file from this page . In this file you can see which documents are required to apply for your programme. Proof of English language proficiency (if already obtained): upload your proof of English language proficiency or English language test results. Please find the English language requirements here . After having prepared the required documents, please follow the online application procedure . Do you want to check your admissibility for more than one specialization? Please apply for Finance and complete your application for one specialization in your personal VU dashboard. For the other specialization(s) you want to apply for please get in touch with us per specialization including Application Form via the online form .
All students seeking admission to an international Master’s programme with an international degree are required to pay a non-refundable €100 application fee. Only after you have paid this fee will we be able to start the evaluation of your application file. If you are applying for more than one programme, you will only need to pay the application fee once. Your application fee payment is valid for two years. Information on how to apply with an international university degree and deadlines can be found here .
The MSc Finance is ranked in the Financial Times Masters in Finance Ranking and has been a top ranked programme according to the National Student Survey (NSE) for several years. Furthermore, the MSc Finance has been voted the most popular Master in The Netherlands by employers in 2023.
With a Master’s in Finance, you can work at any of the large banks, asset managers, or consultancy firms, but also in institutions like the Central Bank or Ministry of Finance.
Are you driven and ambitious? Do you enjoy approaching challenges from different schools of thoughts? Are you interested in the societal impact of financial markets and have solid quantitative skills? Then a Master’s degree from the Finance programme is the right place to start!