Why UvA?
History of the UvA
Because the Athenaeum Illustre was not yet a proper university, classes were usually taught in professors’ homes. Until the nineteenth century, the Athenaeum remained a small institution with no more than 250 students and eight teachers. This changed in 1877, when the Athenaeum Illustre became the University of Amsterdam and was permitted to confer academic degrees.
From the two subjects offered by the Athenaeum Illustre, the UvA has expanded into a comprehensive university with seven major faculties. These are Economics and Business, Dentistry, Humanities, Law, Medical Sciences, Science, and Social and Behavioural Sciences, and collectively they conduct research and education in over sixty disciplinary fields. The University's strong historical bond with the city has remained througout these changes.
Research: a critical perspective
The intellectual atmosphere at the UvA is critical and socially engaged.
The University’s scholarly research has an excellent national and international reputation. Research at the UvA is frequently interdisciplinary, and staff and students are encouraged to push the traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Room to develop
With nearly 30,000 students and 5,000 staff the UvA is one of the four ‘classical’ comprehensive universities in the Netherlands. This means that it offers a very wide range of programmes. ‘Classical’ also means that education is seen as valuable in and of itself, and not just subsumed to the whims of the labour market.
Above all, the UvA wants to provide a place for the development of talent, where students and researchers will be brought into contact with diverging and sometimes conflicting points of view. We see the Univeristy as a place where students learn to think in an original and independent way.
