The International Economics and Business Programs at the Economics Faculty have been designed to give students a solid background in all disciplines which are central to the professional economist's job in an international setting. The programs aim to optimally prepare students for the many challenges of a rapidly changing international economic environment.

The IB-, IEF- and BS-programs are part of the Economics curriculum, Undergraduates receive the title of Bachelor (B.SC.) and Graduate students receive the title of Master (MSc, MPhil) in Economics. The majority of the students in the faculty's international programs come from the Netherlands, but an increasing number of students comes from other countries, like the UK, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Ghana and Tanzania.

Frank Yu (19): 'Not hard to settle down'
Frank Yu studies International Business at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. Born in China he moved to Peru and then came to Tilburg. "I was working in Peru but realized I wanted to study more. Some Dutch friends, who studied at Tilburg University, advised me to study International Business here. The university is very international and has a good reputation. I have been here now for over a year and still got almost three year to go. The emphasis on self-study is motivating, and the university is very professional. It was not very hard to settle into a new environment."

Tilburg University, founded in 1927, is a fully accredited government-financed university with over 9,000 and up to 10,000 students. The university employs around 1,700 people. Foreign students can complete (part of) their education in Tilburg while Dutch students are encouraged to take part in programs outside the Netherlands. The university has bilateral agreements with 125 universities all over the world.

Tilburg University is located on a compact and suburban campus, on the west side of the city. With its six faculties it is a small-sized university, in which it is easy to find one's way about. The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration is the oldest and largest faculty. The other five faculties (Law, Social Sciences, Arts, Philosophy and Theology) are of more recent date. In addition, Tilburg University has a number of well-established research-centred and graduate schools and a post-graduate business school. The Center for Economic Research (CentER) is one of the top research institutes for fundamental economic research in Europe.

The educational programs at Dutch universities are constantly evaluated and compared with each other. These comparisons show that Tilburg University has excellent educational programs. The judgments of students and external specialists show that Tilburg University is successful in aiming at the highest possible quality of education. According to Elsevier Magazine, which provide a yearly ranking of Dutch Universities, Tilburg is the top-qualified university in the field of Economics and Law. Furthermore, the European Economic Association (EEA) recently published a ranking of best European research institutes in Economics in terms of the quality of publications. Tilburg ended up first!

In 2002 the Economics Faculty has achieved accreditation of its business programs by the American organisation AACSB International (Association To Advance Collegiate Schools of Business). Tilburg now belongs to one of the thirteen European faculties/institutions which acquired the AACSB-accreditation.

Both its famous facilities such as the high tech library and its excellent classrooms are highly appreciated by the students. The Internet, e-mail and complete software packages allow students and staff to gather, organize and process information efficiently.

With a population of nearly 200,000 inhabitants, the city of Tilburg is the Netherlands' sixth largest city and the vital heart of the Province of Brabant. The city has concert halls, several museums and is a real student town (with in total 25.000 students) offering many opportunities for leisure activities.