Would you like to expand your horizon by living abroad, while simultaneously broadening your intercultural understanding and knowledge of International Business and Marketing? Would you like to gain practical experience in business and marketing consultancy at companies in the Netherlands, Germany and Romania? If you want to expand your international marketing knowledge and learn about it from professionals in the business world, this is the programme for you. 

Why Viaa Business Exchange?
Why Viaa?
What you will learn
What our students would like to share with you
Full semester with mandatory and elective courses 
International field trips during your study at Viaa
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Join us for the Viaa Business Exchange programme. It is an English-taught semester programme focusing on cultural understanding and personal growth. International students at Viaa travel a lot, not only to major cities in the Netherlands like The Hague and Rotterdam but also internationally, to Romania and Germany. 

Our Dutch and international students value Viaa for its small-scale and Christian profile, offering high-quality and practice-oriented education. Due to its size, you as a student will benefit from an individual learning approach, small learning groups and personal contacts. From day 1, you will build new connections with teachers and fellow students, for life.   

Located in Zwolle, Viaa is within half-a-day travel distance by train from large European cities, like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Brussels, and Paris.   

The focus of the programme is cross-cultural understanding, in combination with international business and marketing. During the Viaa Business Exchange programme, you will experience German and Romanian business culture, next to the Dutch business culture. An essential feature of the programme is hands-on learning. In addition to theory in class and academic readings, you will experience your new living environment, make (international) company visits, and work on practical assignments assigned by companies in the Netherlands, Germany and Romania.   

All these experiences are brought together in the Intercultural Explorations class, as a learning environment for cross-cultural understanding. You will be coached by a professional tutor to reflect on your cross-cultural learning process. For the Intercultural Explorations class, you have to research a personal topic of investigation. 

“During the business programme we were given three practical projects to work on in three different countries: Netherlands, Germany, and Romania. It was very interesting to see how the culture had a huge effect on how each country conducts business.” – Neila, SPICE alumna 2018 

During the Viaa Business Exchange programme, you follow a semester at Viaa with 4 or 5 courses. The following courses are mandatory: International Business (8 ECTS), Culture and Society (4 ECTS) and Intercultural Explorations (4 ECTS).

You can choose one extra course* out of the following (4 ECTS unless indicated otherwise):  

• Research Project (available online and on-campus)  
• Social Psychology

*Availability of elective courses is dependent on a minimum of five students. Changes may occur and will always be discussed with the student(s).

Field trips are an integral part of the exchange programme. All Viaa Exchange students, including the Business students, will go on a weeklong field trip to Rome and several field trips to large cities or landmarks in the Netherlands. Also, students of the business study programme make company visits within the Netherlands and travel to Germany and Romania for consultancy assignments and company visits. 

Would you like to sign up or do you have a question about the Viaa Business Exchange programme at Viaa? You are welcome to connect with our International Office!