International perspective: a Spanish student in the Netherlands

The Netherlands is a friendly country that is tailored to international students, so don’t be afraid to start your international adventure here. You don’t even need to speak Dutch because many of the degrees are in English, and that is a big advantage.  

On a personal level, studying abroad is such an enriching experience. It allows you to meet people from a wide variety of countries, which opens your mind and gives you a view of the world that you wouldn’t get by staying in your country of origin. You also encounter many learning experiences and grow as an individual, especially in the first few months after you arrive. 

However, this adventure brings many challenges, both academic and extracurricular. IBA attracts the largest number of applicants in the country, so the academic level of the students and the expectations are high, and this is reflected in all areas. 

The educational style is based on self-study, which means that you have very few classes each week and a lot of free time to organise yourself. But this style of learning still requires many hours of individual study. You need to learn to build your schedule and keep track of classes and assignments, which is the first big change compared with high school.  

Courses are usually divided into lectures and workshops. Lectures are held in large rooms where the professor teaches theoretical content and usually there is no opportunity to go over the lesson or answer questions on the spot. Workshops, on the other hand, involve smaller groups of about 30 people in a much more practical approach taught by a teaching assistant, who is usually a student from the year above you. 

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