Samenvatting

Conference presentation.At the Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences, the relatively high student drop out rate, as well as the study delay are seen as impediments towards the overall study success. The International Business undergraduate programme is not an exception to this. The focus of this paper is on the Finance and Accounting courses, which are generally perceived as pretty difficult by IB students. The objective is to explore the major bottlenecks in the Finance and Accounting applied higher education provided at the undergraduate IB programme in the Netherlands. The paper also aims at formulating propositions towards improving the effectiveness of the aforementioned education, contributing to better academic results. The research methodology is based on two surveys – a teacher survey and a student survey. The results reveal a lack of student understanding of the relevance of the studied materials for the future, as well as insufficient motivation.In such an environment, a systemic application of active learning methods, such as gamification, supported by well-designed professional study materials, or a more rigid learning system based on traditional didactics enforced through incentives and some elements of student external control can enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning, showing a potential to increase student retention, although do not necessarily help to profoundly tackle some major challenges related to student motivation and Math skills.