Rankings & accreditations
The Problem-Based Learning system at Maastricht University guarantees a high quality education. Students get more out of their studies, the duration of study programmes are shorter and students are more satisfied.
This focus on quality leads to great benefits, demonstrated by high rankings in comparative studies by different publications.
Elsevier
Elsevier asked about 2,000 professors and 6,000 students to rank universities based on several factors: the range of programmes offered, facilities, programme curriculum, quality of teaching, testing standards and overall organisation & communication:
- according to the students, UM is the best university for bachelor's programmes in Econometrics and Operations Research, Fiscal Economics and Medicine
- professors ranked the bachelor's programme Health Sciences the best in the Netherlands
- Dutch Law, the Research Master in Health Sciences, International Business, Medicine and management master's programmes and were voted the best
Times Higher Education – QS World University Rankings
The THE-QS World University Rankings assess universities on the basis of research quality (peer review and paper citations), the opinions of employers, international orientation and education. Maastricht University was ranked 116th in the top 400 universities worldwide by the THE-QS this year, marking a sharp rise from 172nd in 2006. Although the overall ranking fell five points from 111th in 2007/08 and UM's score in academic peer review has declined, Maastricht University now has a higher percentage of international students and staff. THE-QS also ranked UM one of the Top 20 European institutions in clinical medicine.
Financial Times
For the third consecutive year the master's programme in International Business was included in the Master in Management Programmes published by the Financial Times. This ranking is based:
- alumni correlating their education to their careers
- employers
- salary
- data provided by the programmes themselves, including the number of international students and staff, international mobility of students and language training
Maastricht ranked #29 and scored particularly high (3rd place) in the price/performance ratio by alumni.
CHE Excellence Ranking
The Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung compares European research centres for prospective master's and PhD students. Every two years CHE examines different types of studies. This year they looked at political science, economics and psychology.
Maastricht University, together with nine other Dutch universities, was ranked within the excellence group for psychology and economics. Maastricht was distinguished by the large number of publications, the mobility of its students (especially economics students), and a large number of citations in international journals.
Unlike traditional rankings, CHE does not render a final verdict but gives stars according to ten performance factors, from overall programme quality and international mobility of students and staff to the quality of research. SBE won eight of ten stars and FPN won only six.
Keuzegids Hoger Onderwijs
As with last year, Maastricht University is among the top three Dutch universities, after Wageningen University and the Open University. The small class sizes and the intensive education intrinsic to Problem-Based Learning have certainly helped Maastricht achieve this position.
Accreditation
Maastricht University offers only programmes that are accredited by the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organisation (NVAO). UM also strives to obtain international accreditation for its courses.
'Triple Crown' accreditation
The Maastricht University School of Business and Economics is internationally accredited by the renowned AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, making it one of a few international schools with all three accreditations.
NVAO Excellence label
NVAO regularly audits the institutions that it gives accreditations to. In 2008 the University College Maastricht (UCM) was the first to receive a quality label from the NVAO for the achievement level of its graduate students. Only two higher education programmes have been awarded this label.