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Cultural Exchange Ambassadors Programme

Become a Global Changemaker!

Would you like to? 

  • meet local and international students and play an important role representing the University of Amsterdam
  • expand your volunteer experiences
  • collaborate with students form a range of different cultures
  • future-proof your career with 21st century skills to stand out and succeed as intercultural leaders

Join the UvA multicultural student community!

Register here to become an Exchange Ambassador!

University spokespersons

Every year, hundreds of international study abroad students are welcomed to study at the UvA, and just as many UvA students leave to study at foreign universities. To raise students’ awareness of this opportunity and promote the various study abroad destinations, you are given a platform to share your study abroad experience and you are trained to find creative and innovative ways to support prospective students preparing for their own exchange experience.

We not only trust the honest perspective of study abroad students, we also know that peer advising plays a key role in reassuring future mobility students about what it is like to go abroad.

Multicultural teamwork: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

The UvA Cultural Exchange Ambassadors Programme is a team-based, extracurricular experience promoting equity in mobility, celebrating cultural diversity and inspiring students to engage with their community. You will be given the opportunity to use you student mobility experience (for example participating in an exchange, summer, conference, scholarships and/or virtual study abroad programme) and collaborate in various teams to complete a list of challenging but fun projects.

You will meet your fellow ambassadors during our weekly training sessions (with a well-deserved break the week before and during exam week), spending a total of 30 hours of work on a variety of team projects.

Reporting on Instagram and Facebook Publishing the Exchange Express Speaking at the Study Abroad Fair Sharing your student experience (testimonials) Meeting partner universities Organising a festival with student ambassadors of the University of Birmingham

Developing professional skills

As an ambassador, you will be trained to navigate and adapt to cultural differences, apply different strategies to capitalise on the creativity and innovation that comes with multicultural teamwork and develop your intercultural competence; a useful skill for everyone who foresees a future career where you will be working with a diverse group of people.

The programme will focus on enhancing your self-efficacy in interacting with students from different cultures with an emphasis on communication, equity-mindedness and inclusion. At the end of the programme, you will receive a certificate and a LinkedIn recommendation.

Award-winning programme

In 2015, the Cultural Exchange Ambassadors Programme won the prestigious Orange Carpet Award for the sector Higher Education. The award was granted to highlight outstanding initiatives that promote the international character of Dutch higher education.

In 2017, one of the Ambassador teams signed up for the yearly Global Ingenuity Challenge, organised by the Universitas 21 network with the theme ‘Promoting Cultural Inclusiveness in Society. The ambassador team competing on behalf of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) was awarded a joint winner of the 2017 Challenge for its entry called ‘UNIFY’.

Application deadlines and contact

Places are limited and you can register your interest here.

  • Applications for the first semester programme close on 27 August, 17:00.
  • Applications for the second semester programme close on 27 January, 17:00.

For questions about the Ambassadors programme, please email global@uva.nl.