University of Amsterdam

The value proposition of UvA EB is: ‘Impact through Engagement’ and its stated mission is: ‘To offer an inspiring, international learning community to study business and economics, where both students and staff can reach their full potential. We prepare students to become well-rounded global citizens and professionals capable of critical ‘cross-thinking’ and independent in-depth analysis. UvA EB strives to conduct ground-breaking high-quality academic research on innovative themes relevant to business and society, offering research-driven teaching that meets the highest international standards. UvA EB is committed to advancing the understanding of business and its role in society, including its economic and institutional context, and to leverage synergies within UvA EB, the UvA, the Amsterdam metropolitan area and beyond.’ The vision of UvA EB is: ‘To strive for societally relevant education and research. We aim to deliver outstanding graduates and make high-quality relevant scientific contributions to the academic field of business and economics. UvA EB explicitly opts for a research-driven analytical profile. That’s why we want to attract highly qualified students from all over the world who are interested in the fields of business and economics and who want to develop their skills through a combination of rigorous academic thinking and practical content. Teaching at UvA EB is research-driven and aims to deliver graduates who are able to analyse problems based on sound academic concepts and principles. A research-driven attitude helps students prepare for a career rather than for a specific job and facilitates employability during their entire working life in challenging jobs.’ Our core values are: Responsible. Critical thinking. Analytical. Engaged. International. We consider two of them our unique selling points (USPs): Sustainability and Responsibility in business and society is what we have been researching and educating for decades. Key figures here are Professor Ans Kolk, Professor Brendan O'Dwyer, Professor Arno Kourula, Professor Rick van der Ploeg and Dr Thomas Douenne, among others. Many research initiatives embedded in new impact centres align with sustainability and responsibility: the Amsterdam Centre for Behavioural Change, the Research Centre for Sustainable Investments & Insurance, the Amsterdam Centre for Responsible Consumption, Analytics for a Better World and, most recently, a new centre on ESG Accounting. In education, almost all programmes in our portfolio contain courses on Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability (ERS). In addition, elements of ERS are woven into courses not specifically dedicated to ERS. The second USP is Advanced Analytics, which includes econometrics, actuarial science, operations research/optimisation and, more recently, data science and artificial intelligence (AI). UvA EB has a long history of educating and researching the theory of it. In addition, we apply it in many economics and business domains: Accounttech, Fintech, People Analytics, Operations Analytics, Micro- and Macro-economics, evidence-based policy evaluations, et cetera. There are three value drivers behind this: Quality over Quantity, Internationalisation and Enhancing collaborations with internal and external partners.