New calculation of institutional tuition fees and transitional arrangement

Government subsidy and tuition fees
Maastricht University (UM) only receives government subsidy for students who pay statutory tuition fees. Generally, students from EU/EEA countries, Switzerland or Suriname qualify for paying these statutory tuition fees. This government subsidy consists of two components:

1. Variable component: covers the direct costs of providing education
2. Fixed component: helps sustain the educational facilities and student services of a more permanent nature, such as the Education Offices, scheduling, exam commissions, study advisers, student deans, student administration, learning spaces and the University Library. This fixed component is not strictly related to the number of students at any given time.

Maastricht University does not receive this (or any other) government subsidy for students who pay the institutional tuition fees. Generally, students from non-EU/EEA countries do not qualify for the statutory tuition fees and have to pay these institutional tuition fees. In the past, the institutional tuition fees for these students were calculated by taking the statutory tuition fees and adding only an amount based on the variable component to cover direct education costs. Institutional tuition fees previously did not include a surcharge to cover the costs of educational facilities and student services of a more permanent nature (fixed component).

Balancing quality and a growing demand
In recent years, the population of non-EU/EEA students at UM who pay the institutional tuition fees has more than doubled, strongly increasing the demand for educational facilities and student services while their tuition fees have not covered their costs. To maintain the quality of these essential facilities and services, it has become necessary to include their cost in the institutional fees from 2025-2026 onwards, leading to adjusted institutional tuition fees.   

Upholding our student-centred commitment
At Maastricht University, we are committed to remaining a student-centred university and providing a supportive learning environment where students can thrive. This increase in institutional tuition fees ensures that we can continue delivering high-quality education and maintain the facilities and services that contribute to our students’ academic success.

To accommodate students who started studying at UM before they could take the adjusted institutional tuition fees into account, a transitional arrangement has been set up.

How it works
If you were enrolled in a bachelor’s, pre-master’s or master’s programme* at UM for the academic year 2024-2025, you will pay institutional tuition fees that have not been adjusted to include the costs for the upkeep of educational facilities and student services (non-adjusted institutional tuition fees). This transitional arrangement will last up to and including the academic year 2027-2028**. This means that from the academic year 2028-2029 onwards, all students who do not qualify for paying statutory tuition fees will pay the adjusted institutional tuition fees per academic year.

*the transitional arrangement does not apply to the following master’s programmes for professionals: 

• Advanced Master in Intellectual Property Law and Knowledge Management MSc
• Advanced Master in Intellectual Property Law and Knowledge Management LLM
• Advanced Master in Privacy, Cybersecurity, Data Management
• Executive Master of Business Administration
• Executive Master in Cultural Leadership
• Executive Master of Finance and Control
• Health Professions Education

• International Accountancy (joint master)

   

• International Executive Master of Auditing
• International Executive Master of Finance and Control
• Master of Arts in Management

For these master’s programmes, you will always pay the study fee set by the relevant faculty board as indicated on the UM website on the respective study programme page.

** Important: all tuition fees (the statutory as well as the adjusted/non-adjusted institutional tuition fees) are indexed every year. This means that all tuition fee rates will increase every year.

The non-adjusted institutional tuition fees for the academic year 2025-2026
The non-adjusted institutional tuition fees (without an increase to accommodate the upkeep of educational and student facilities) for the academic year 2025-2026 are as follows:

Please note: 

• There are three different tuition fee levels for non-EU/EEA students (institutional): low, high and top.
• For the UCM and MSP bachelor's programmes, the tuition fee rate for non-EU/EEA students (institutional) has been increased by a surcharge for the Special Characteristics Small-scale and Intensive (BKKI) education; this BKKI surcharge is also applied to the statutory tuition fee rate. The bachelor’s BKKI institutional tuition fees are: €16,160.