Working in Maastricht
Over the past decades, Maastricht has changed from a quiet provincial capital to a vibrant, international student city with a renowned university medical centre, a health campus, numerous start-ups, a city centre with enormously divers shopping possibilities, beautiful hotels, countless terraces and many artists who start a studio in town after they graduate.
History becomes future
Maastricht was the first labour and industry city of the Netherlands. With the foundation of various large industries, from 1830 on the fortress town got a completely new identity. Especially the ceramics factories – founded by Petrus Regout – changed the character of the town into a true production city where many factories were established within the original city walls. Many of those factories are now closed or located outside the city walls, outside Maastricht or even the Netherlands.
The city has succeeded in maintaining the tracks of the former industrialisation. Particularly in the Belvédère area former factory buildings get a public-friendly reallocation – such as a student hotel, cinema, pop platform, FashionLab, presentation institute and studios for beginning designers; there are also plans for a Fashion House.
Kennis-As
Maastricht University, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences and the Maastricht MUMC have taken the initiative for Kennis-As, a strategic ten-year programme to strengthen the social and economic structure in Limburg.
Central to Kennis-As is the reinforcement and connection of the four Limburg campuses that are generally regarded the current and future flywheels of the economic development. Kennis-As also stimulates a healthy and vital population.
Kennis-As dovetails with the nationwide programme Brainport 2020, aimed at transforming the south-eastern Netherlands into a knowledge economy of international stature in the fields of biomaterials, agri/food and health. The programme also fits in the European agenda, which explicitly incorporates ageing, health and sustainability.
Flywheels
The four Brightlands campuses serve as the flywheels of Kennis-As and generate much employment in the region. In the upcoming years, hundreds of millions of euros will be invested and there will be close cooperation with the nearby universities in Eindhoven, Liège, Leuven and Aachen. Limburg small and medium enterprises will also be involved in many initiatives.
Brightlands Maastricht Health Campus
Brightlands Chemelot Campus
Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo
Brightlands Smart Services Campus
Working in Maastricht as a researcher
At the UM, we conduct research on all levels. Some students already start in the bachelor phase, others during the master’s programme. If you work on your PhD, you hardly do anything else, and the same goes, of course, for the academics here at the UM. We are proud to say that our research receives international acclaim.
Almost each faculty has its own research institute. In these institutes you not only cooperate with UM colleagues, but also with colleagues from other institutes in the Netherlands and the world. There are also the graduate schools, where PhD students conduct their research and receive guidance in their field. Almost all faculties have a graduate school.
Read more about research institutes
Read more about Graduate schools
Working in Maastricht and surroundings
DSM / Chemelot
The European institutes of Maastricht
Hogeschool Zuyd
The Province of Limburg
Startups and creative hotspots
Municipality of Maastricht
Maastricht UMC+
Museums, art galleries, theatres etcetera...
Besides Maastricht University you will find other interesting employers in Maastricht and its close surroundings. Large international organisations that are strongly rooted in the (Eu)region and offer an enormous variety in vacancies, with often international career opportunities.
Maastricht also has many start-ups (often affiliated with the university) and small companies, located in creative incubators and collective workspaces that offer very interesting job opportunities.