ARP Amsterdam Research Project

Amsterdam Research Project
is a non-profit, student-run year long venture of 25 people travelling abroad to learn, enjoy and research a different country and culture.

On thursday I arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia after a 20 hour trip through Singapore. I will be taking over the duties of Mr Jan Verhoeven as a supervising professor for the second lap of this studytrip. The last leg to Surabaya will be supervised by Mr Joop van Schijndel. In the coming two weeks I will give some insights about this trip. But what is ARP?

The parameters of the trip are:

:: 25 students

:: 5 weeks travelling

:: year long project

:: EUR 90.000,– budget

:: seven research projects

:: 6 flights

:: 5 participant trainings

:: 250 - 350 researchhours per student

:: 3 supervising professors

The faculty of economics and business administration (FEWEB) of VU University Amsterdam supports this initiative and cooperates with the faculty student body Aureus to make this the best international research trip available.

What is it the participants, 3rd and 4th year students, get from this trip? They learn from

:: the meeting with another culture,

:: operating in a large group of people for a long time

:: doing research for a company

:: visiting businesses and interviewing

:: working out of reference

Now, after all this travelling and working and having fun, what is it they produce, what is the result?

:: a report and presentation to the company involved giving it:

- local knowledge

- local presence

- local experience

- local data

:: a professional seminar with lessons learned

:: an unforgettable experience and

:: a changed student

The biggest question for me is how to make it relevant in a time when you can find anything online and local knowledge and workers are cheaply available. This, I think, we do by focussing the students on learning from all aspects of the year long experience and making them aware of this priviledge called travelling and consulting. They get a unique opportunity but they also need to fulfill the expectations of society. At the same time they are in competition with VERY eager students from other countries like India, China and Brazil who are more than willing to learn and work hard. In my opinion this project makes it possible for them to learn to compete on an international level with their peers.