Maastricht University

Maastricht University has a unique style of learning, problem-based learning, which I found helped me to understand the course material a lot better, to become more confident and improved my communication skills. The university and the town itself is very welcoming and accommodating to international students. The majority of programmes are taught in English and the university offers free Dutch lessons to students. The only downside is the accommodation - it can be difficult to find accommodation when you first move to the town.

I would definetly recommend this University. FASoS is an excellent faculty and the programme of MA Arts and Heritage: Policy, Management and Education is a very enriching and complete one. We had the opportunity to make very relevant field trips to Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and Bruxels, and we had contact with top professionals, professors and researchers in the field. Plus, we made friends for life! I would do it all over again if I could!

I've always had a hard time remaining focused in class. I have a tendency to engage in many extracurriculars, so I was always exhausted and falling asleep in class. UCM has been absolutely amazing in this regard: the classes are super interesting, students have a lot of freedom to choose their courses, and there are always kind faces around to share conversations with! PBL is extremely engaging in my opinion and really grounds the task studied into real-life applications.

Pros: - Focused tutorial groups where learning takes place with 10-15 students so personalized learning - Course covered the necessary concepts theoretically backed with practical applications through case studies and report submissions - The Problem Based Learning (PBL) system places more responsibility on the student to gain value from the course and the professors. This is my favorite component of the education system at Maastricht since if someone has a high level of interest in a particular courses, they would be able to obtain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the course through their interactions with their tutors and professors. - The city is small which contributes positively to the student experience - I would definitely recommend this course since I believe it impacted, not only my knowledge of the subject matter, but also the way I think of problems which is vital for any graduate entering today’s dynamic workplace environment. Cons: -Self-motivation is very important to succeed at Maastricht. If you cannot motivate yourself, external sources of motivation are rare. - Attendance in lectures and tutorials help more than people realize and if one is going to be studying at Maastricht, one should definitely be prepared to attend 4-6 hours of classes every day, before going back home to work for another 2-4 hours in preparation for the classes on the following day. - Maastricht is a small city and accommodation is mostly on a Landlord-Tenant basis. Thus, renting costs tend to be quite high and finding accommodation proves to be quite a challenging task for many students. Overall, Maastricht provided a positive learning experience with a multitude of extracurriculars which people can get immersed in. However, if you want to get the full value from Maastricht University and everything it offers, effective time management is essential since the course itself would take up majority of your time.

The University College Maastricht (UCM), a particularly high workload, open curriculum bachelor's course at Maastricht University was by far the best academic decision I have ever made. The class sizes are very small which means you get lots of personal interaction with the world-leading professors. The method of teaching at Maastricht University is Problem-based-learning, this is particularly beneficial for the courses available at UCM as it leads to in-depth and fruitful conversations about the curriculum materials, which in turn leads to a deeper and more interdisciplinary understanding. This course has led me to discover where exactly my place in this world is and how to address problems from a truly multi-disciplinary way, analysing each element of a problem and finding the best possible solution and way forward. I thank UCM not only for the eye-opening experiences and opportunities that it gave me, but for the way it helped in shaping me into the person that I am today. I cannot recommend enough.

I really enjoyed studying at UM. Especially the tutorials are a big plus as it gives you a unique opportunity to develop debating skills and argumentation skills, allows you to directly ask questions and often creates a close bond between students and professor. This is something not many universities have!

I'm a second-year Psychology student at Maastricht University. The main point that distinguishes this University from other Universities (in Holland) is their so-called Problem Based Learning (PBL) system. The main part in every PBL-session is that you discuss the literature that you've read along with about 10 other fellow-students. The advantage of this system is that it more or less forces you to prepare for every meeting, making sure that you study throughout the whole course. Up until now, I have passed all of my exams and I think it's mainly due to this system. Even though this system sounds really great, it makes you also a lot more dependent on your fellow students. It is sometimes unclear if a certain topic is important to know, and tutors do sometimes lack knowledge about certain topics, leaving questions unanswered. So, even though the PBL-system at Maastricht University is definitely a helpful system providing more and effective learning, it still lacks certain things that should be looked into to improve the system even more.

Location wise Maastricht University is great, it is located in a small city but is close to Eindhoven, Brussels, Luxembourg and Cologne which makes it easy to travel around during the weekends if your studies allow it. Trains are quite expensive in the Netherlands but there are other forms of transport you can use. But even if you want to stay in Maastricht, you will find over 400 bars to chill out with your new friends! Plus there are 3 cinemas and a couple of music venues that bring you big names. Study wise the University is tough. It is a very demanding university that tries to push you as far as you can go to reach your potential. This can be great because you have endless opportunities for improvement, student associations, clubs, sports, seminars, lectures. Literally anything you need. At the same time, it can be very time consuming, but most of all kind of tough on your mental health because of the stress and so on. Good thing is, they have student advisors who can help you and psychologists you can talk to. It's not a taboo here and everybody does it. There will always be someone you can talk to about your issues, and especially now with the COVID-19 craziness, the university has been quite understanding.