Program Reviews

International Criminal Justice course is perfect choice for both laywers specializing in different fields of law and international laywers. I do not only gained theoretical knowlegde but also practical knowledge. Most of the professors were from the Center for International Criminal Justice as well as we had lectures run by judges of International Criminal Court. Course also included study visits to the International Criminal Court and Special Tribunal for Lebanon. These study visits gave us practical knowledge as we had the meetings with the laywers from Prosecution and Defense Office who told their own experiences. What I liked mostly was that our courses were student -centered and full of discussions of different challenges that International Criminal Court and international community faces. I recommend everyone to take this perfect course!

I have spent two weeks in Amsterdam, doing "Data Analysis in R" course in VU Amsterdam Summer School.
It has been a great experience, the course has been helpful as I study statistics in Italy.
It has became more and more difficult, but that was really challenging and the teacher was always there to help all students.
The staff have taken us to many beautiful places such as The Hague, Van Ghoog museum and we did the tour boat around the city, it has been amazing and very fun
I have met wonderful people

Wonderful experience. It was a multi national classroom. Working together with different people have a broader impact on me. I would like to join more courses at here. The computer laboratory are very well prepared. The atmosphere at the University is very supportive to intellectual cultivation of ideas. The student organisations are also are very supportive and accomodating . I would highly recommend others to take the opportunity to take part in the study program .

I attended the Operations Research: A Mathematical Way to Optimize your World course during the VU Summer School program. VU is obviously an institution which prides itself on delivering excellence every aspect. This is seen from the quality of the course itself and the knowledgeable lecturers to the well maintained and modern university facilities. The VU Summer School team is also very well organized!

I thoroughly enjoyed making new friends with the other students attending Summer School. It is such a privilege to learn about their countries and cultures. I'm sure I will end up visiting some of them in the future!

I thoroughly enjoyed my two weeks at this summer school - it was very intensive, focus and the staff were really enthusiastic. All of the excursions were interesting and relevant, and I saw a lot of Amsterdam through trips with the course. We even had a canal tour included looking at black heritage in the city. Overall I was very impressed with the organisation of the course and really can't fault anything.

VU summer school has expanded my horizons exponentially. I have not just grown academically but as a person as well. The lecturers are experts in their field and drive you to achieve your best. Although intensive 'Decolonizing Europe' is an incredible course which has helped me to develop a new way of thinking and looking at the world and I believe it will help me to achieve more moving forward in my academic career.

Overall an amazing course taught by a collaboration of insightful and inspiring lecturers. We have a project due at the end of the course which allows each group of students to become amateur professionals in a specific area of study. The course also has hands on labs which allows us to learn by conducting our own mini experiments.
The housing accommodation I am staying at is the JANSON Hotel. It's a student hotel so there is a shared kitchen. We need to purchase our own essentials because shampoos soaps lotions and toilet paper is not given. We are given two towels for an additional charge along with a flat sheet and comfortpr to use during the stay. The hotel is far from the city and school so a bike rental is absolutely necessary!

Overall great time in Amsterdam!

All in all, I was very happy with the Summer Course I took at the VU Amsterdam, which was in Empirical Legal Methods.

The professor herself was amazing. She wrote a book especially for the purpose of this course, although we were only 9. At the same time, she managed to make basic social science research methods ''sexy'' for law students, which is most definately not an easy thing to do.

Besides that, I was also very harppy with the quality of the accomodation at Hotel Jansen. If I ever noticed another interesting course and were to have time, I would definately consider returning to this Summer School.

Overall, this program has been a motivating and self-reflecting experience for me. I have learned so much about myself academically and of course about the class. I learned about the African diaspora in the Europe and how I can relate it to a US context. I also learned about how the Netherlands still encounters microaggressions which often times it goes unheard of. I would recommend this course to anyone who is willing to learn about race and racism on a broader/international perspective as not all students are dutch.

The Amsterdam Summer School at VU was amazing! Although the two weeks flew by, I made great connections and friends from all over the world and learned so much about Dutch culture, helping me feel A LOT more comfortable living in Amsterdam after the course. I would definitely do the Amsterdam Summer School program again as everything about it was perfect including: housing, curriculum, and the welcome events planned by the program leaders :)