Admissions non-EEA students

Admission procedure for 2025-2026 for non-EU/EEA candidates

NOTE: candidates with Swiss nationality are considered EEA candidates!

The admission procedure for the bachelor's programme of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie consists of two rounds:

First admission round:

- For all non-EU/EEA applicants: assessment of your work after submitting your portfolio pdf online.

Second admission round:

- For all candidates: entrance examination. 

For all information regarding our admission rounds, dates, deadlines, etc., scroll down in the text below.

Application through Studielink starts in November

Application for our bachelor programme 2025-2026 is open from 5 November. All candidates for our bachelor programme first have to apply through Studielink. So, to submit a registration request, first go to the Studielink website: www.studielink.nl to read their guidelines to register. NOTE: once you've submitted an application request for our programme, you can still decide to withdraw or change it and start an application for other academies too. Participation in our admission procedure does not obligate you to study with us. 

Once you're registered in Studielink, you have to submit your application request for our bachelor programme in Studielink, with the blue button 'Add new course'. In the search field Educational Institution, put 'Gerrit Rietveld Academie' in the search filter to find our 2 bachelor courses (so do not search with 'basicyear' or the name of a specific department).

If you use the search filter 'Gerrit Rietveld Academie in the Educational Institution field', you will generate the two HBO bachelor level choices below:

- Fine Arts and Design fulltime, or;

- Fine Arts and Design parttime (= DOGtime).

Select your choice for fulltime (as you cannot apply for student visa on the basis of being admitted to our parttime bachelor). NOTE: non-EEA candidates may be eligible to apply for our part-time DOGtime bachelor's program if they already have a valid residence permit for the Netherlands (on other grounds than fulltime studies).

After selecting the fullltime programme, you have to select your next choice, for:

- first year, or;

- advanced year (this is what you choose when you want to apply directly for the 2nd/3rd year into one of our departments).

NOTE: In Studielink, you cannot select a specific department! So you only choose for our bachelor fulltime or parttime, and for first year or advanced year.

Once you have submitted your application request in Studielink, you will receive automatic e-mails with info about the next steps in your application process. On our closed application page, you'll have to fill out the additional application questions and indicate your department choice.

Residence permit

Students from all non-EU/EEA countries, except Switzerland, are OBLIGED to apply for a residence permit through the International Office of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie to study in the full-time bachelor program. So you cannot study in our part-time programme, unless you already have a valid residence permit for the Netherlands on other grounds, which allows for studying.

Non-EU/EEA students applying for 2024-2025 had to have a provable amount of €23,400.- on their bank account to apply for their residence permit!

More information about a residence permit.

Proof of English proficiency

Candidates are obliged to provide proof of English proficiency during the application process. We accept one of the three options explained below:

• Proof A = a copy of your European high school/secondary diploma, with English as exam subject, level B2 or higher - to be submitted before mid-July 2025, or in case proof A cannot be provided;
• Proof B = proof that English is your mother tongue and/or completed high school in a native-speaking country (high school diploma of native-speaking country) - to be submitted before mid-July 2025, or, in case proof A or B cannot be provided;
• Proof C = your valid Academic IELTS certificate, with minimum overall band score of 6.0, with at least 6.0 for Speaking - to be submitted by July 2025 if you participate in our online consultations for the first admission round. NOTE: If you do the first admission round through the online portfolio machine, proof C has to be submitted with your portfolio application before the portfolio deadlines that are mentioned below! WE DO NOT accept TOEFL or University of Cambridge ESOL Examination language tests as IELTS replacement!

NOTE: if you cannot provide proof A or B as described above, you are obliged to provide proof C. If you do the first admission round by submitting your portfolio application online through the portfolio machine, and you cannot provide proof A or B as described above, your proof C must be submitted before the portfolio application deadline - otherwise your portfolio application will not be taken into consideration!

Selection of works for the 1st admission round

In your pdf document for the first admission round, show a wide variety of visual work, taking into account:

- to make your selection as diverse as possible, with a main focus on work of the past three years.

- to not only show final results, but also include initial sketches, ideas and plans which can provide some insight into your work (process).

- to show plenty of work, at least 20-30 pieces (but possibly more!). These can be drawings, sketches, design sketches, sketch books, paintings, photographs, collages, graphics, textiles, garments, ceramics, items of jewellery, floor plans, models and, if applicable, texts , etc.. 

- when applying for the first bachelor (basic)year, make sure the work you show is not too one-sided, so if you have a main interest in photography or graphic design, do not only show photos or graphic work, but also work in other media.

- do not only show assignment-based work but also include your 'free work,' based on your personal ideas, created at your own initiative.

- to keep the document size of your pdf as small as possible, maximally 30-40 MB (and reduce the resolution of your photos/images, if necessary).

1st admission round: submitting your portfolio for assessment

For the 1st admission round, all non-EU/EEA candidates have to submit a portfolio pdf for assessment. On the basis of your submitted portfolio pdf, the admissions committee will determine whether to invite you to participate in the entrance examination.

But first, you have to register through Studielink and submit an application request (see info above). Once you have submitted an application request through Studielink, you will receive automatic e-mails with information about the next steps and how to submit your portfolio pdf for assessment.

Portfolios for the Basicyear can be submitted from November till the deadline in December (see below). 2nd/3rd year candidates can submit their portfolios from mid-January till the deadline mentioned below. The guidelines for the selection of works that are outlined above, under Selection of works for the 1st admission round, also apply here.

NOTE: you can only apply for the 2nd year, if you completed at least 1 bachelor year of studies in fine arts/design successfully (by July 2025 at the latest).

Deadlines to submit your portfolio

For application 1st bachelor Basicyear fulltime 2025-2026, for non-EU/EEA applicants

- From November, till the DEADLINE: 17 December 2024.

For applicaton 2nd/3rd year fulltime 2025-2026, for all applicants:

- From mid-January, till the DEADLINE: 1 March 2025!

We urge you to submit your portfolio a.s.a.p., well before the deadline! Definitely do not wait until last-minute, to avoid missing the deadline due to unexpected technical problems. Only applications submitted before the deadline will be taken into consideration!

Second admission round: entrance examinaton

If you receive a positive assessment of your portfolio, you pass on to the second admission round; the entrance examination. After submitting all required application questions/documentation on our closed application page, your participation in the 2nd round is guaranteed and your entrance exam will be scheduled.

Dates entrance exams

The entrance exams are scheduled in:

• the week of 17-21 March 2025 (& extra round iin the week of 14-17 April) - for candidates full-time Basicyear;
• the week of 19-23 May, 2025 for 2nd/3rd programme year candidates full-time. NOTE: exact date varies per department.
• (the week of 14-17 April, 2025 (15 & 17 April) - for candidates DOGtime (extra round on 20-21 May)**;

** application for DOGtime is only open to EU/EEA candidates. Non-EEA candidates can only apply for DOGtime if they already have a valid residence permit for the Netherlands (on other grounds than fulltime studies), which also allows them to study in the Netherlands. 

Two weeks before the exam week, registered candidates who passed the first round successfully will receive all relevant information by e-mail. Candidates for the first bachelor course year will then also receive the home assignments.

Information about entrance exam

In principle, all candidates are required to attend their entrance exam in person at our academy in Amsterdam (on 1 morning or afternoon in the exam week). Bring an elaborate and diverse selection of your art/design work of the past 3 years, including the home assignments, to the exam.

NOTE: Candidates living outside of the EU, who are unable to attend the entrance exam in person, can send a request to do the entrance exam long-distance, to apply[at]rietveldacademie.nl (at least 3 weeks before the exam week).

With your input during the entrance exam,  the admissions committee hopes to gather enough information about your visual abilities, your work and the various media you have worked with, your work process and outcome of the home assignments (if applicable), your motivation, background, sources of inspiration, expectations of the study programme, and the quality of your English communication, so we can get an idea of your possible suitability for our programme.

The entrance exam consists of an admission interview with an admissions committee (two interviews for Basicyear candidates). The interviews takes approximately 20 minutes.

Entrance exam result

The result of the assessments will be sent by e-mail, within one month after the exam week.

When is application for the 2nd or 3rd year possible

In principle, all candidates who have studied at an art academy at bachelor level, and completed at least the 1st bachelor year of studies successfully (before their possible studies here), can apply for entrance into the 2nd (and by exception 3rd) year (instead of the 1st bachelor Basicyear). After successful participation in the entrance exam, you do have to complete your 1st bachelor year and submit proof of this in your application in Osiris, before the start of your possible studies here.

Code of conduct 

NL-scholarship for non-EU/EEA students

In cooperation with Nuffic, the Gerrit Rietveld Academie can award a total of 3 NL Scholarships (formerly known as 'Holland Scholarship') of 5,000 Euros to new bachelor students from outside of the EU/EEA.

During the application procedure for the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, candidates who passed the first admission round successfully, will receive an e-mail with an application form (before end April).

Questions? Contact: apply[at]rietveldacademie.nl