I do not know what they do in Amsterdam except that they have a good airport. But last I checked, I am not aware of anything pioneering Amsterdam has given the world in the last 50 years except helping companies to hide taxes! So, when that region said it would not accept “African bachelor’s degree” for its yeye master’s degree, I laughed. Let me tell Amsterdam Business School, the world has moved on.
The School of Business in Amsterdam University, Netherlands, has come under criticism for “devaluing” bachelor degrees from Africa, apart from South Africa and Ghana.
The school recently said a Bachelor’s degree from an African country “is not enough to secure admissions for its Master’s degree programme”.
For eligibility, applicants with an African bachelor’s degree (except for South-Africa and Ghana) will need a bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in the field of economics and business, an information on its web page read.
“Information for students with an African bachelor’s degree. An African bachelor’s degree is generally the equivalent of 2 years of academic education in the Netherlands.”
One of my four PhD thesis co-advisors in Johns Hopkins University, Prof Jim West (happy 90th birthday Prof), did not finish any college. Yes, he has no degree but without him, there may not be a smartphone because he invented the core element used in the microphone of modern smartphones. There are many like him in top US universities; they have no degrees but they graduate PhDs!
ABS – the world has moved beyond papers; find a better way to evaluate students. Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, etc admit dozens of Nigerian students yearly, and to think those students are not qualified to attend your school simply means you have lost your mission.
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“I would be hesitant to comment on the individual strategy of a particular university. “ – unfortunately, it has no strategy. It wants to admit a continent instead of a student. This age is about evaluating people, and not a continent. ABS is not evaluating the students but the continent from a myopic angle. To tell a University of Ibadan First Class grad who typically will have Oxford scholarship that he cannot apply to ABS is pure lack of awareness for ABS. There are international tests, use them and select the best.
Updated: the school has updated the website
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Not their fault, it’s for those that have their time.
We are also building one of the finest universities in this continent, and we are done, all Africans that want quality education and researches can go there.
The biggest creators and changemakers never emerged because of business schools they attended, but when they do stuff, the best schools still congregate to learn and understudy them.
Humans are the greatest institutions, and if you have it in you, you don’t need any university to award you one additional paper; they need you more than you need them.