Full house at 'stellar' Bachelor’s Open Day

There was a full house at many UM faculties during the Bachelor’s Open Day on Saturday. Well over three thousand prospective students flocked to the presentations at the biannual event.

Many were escorted by their parents or guardians, keen to learn more about UM bachelor’s programmes, admissions and the much-vaunted Problem-Based Learning model. The visitors, many of them from abroad, also received an introduction to student life in Maastricht.

It was a crisp but dry autumn day and there was plenty of colour inside the UM buildings too, with all presentation rooms decorated for the occasion. Student teams answered questions about student life in Maastricht and what you need to know if you come from another city or country.

Visitor reactions

Saturday’s Open Day left a favourable impression on Alex, a Catalan student who lives in Belgium and who came for two programmes: Business Engineering and Maastricht Science Programme.

“You see really a lot of the city and the programmes are really interesting. Why Maastricht? I like the city. You can write about the fact that you’re an international university, but on a day like this we really feel it everywhere! You hear all kinds of languages and everyone speaks English. That’s great! I’m sure it will be really easy to fit in the community.”

The international academic community in Maastricht was also one of the reasons why 17-year-old Noah (Belgian nationality, living in the UK) came to the Open Day. The other two: “the UM Data Science programme and escaping from England”.

Missed the Bachelor's Open Day?

Visit our 24/7 Virtual Open Day or join our next Bachelor’s Open Day on Saturday, 8 February 2020. The next Master’s Open Day will take place on Saturday, 30 November 2019.

Thank you

Guglielmo (16, from Italy, currently based in Brussels) was impressed by the Talk to an International Student service. “It’s great. The students are really interested and friendly and they provide good information. You can see if your culture fits here and I received lots of information about housing, the intro week and the Science Programme curriculum.”

Lucil Dubic from Belgium found the courses at UM very different and clustered in interconnecting topic which makes it very appealing to her appetite for knowledge. She was also impressed with the friendly environment, the small scale version of education and the personal approach to education and learning.

One of the youngest visitors was Daantje van Well from Maastricht. The 15-year-old felt very welcomed to the open day, which allowed her to feel at ease amongst older students. The primary reason she convinced to attend the university was the Problem-Based Learning system and how everyone was so positive about its implementation in their studies. She thought it was a very practical and fun approach to learning as she hates using books and sitting still in lectures.

Finally, on social media, one parent commented:
"Thank you for organising a stellar Bachelor Dag. My daughter is over the moon with excitement!!!"

Most visits

Once again, the most visited faculties were the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, the School of Business and Economics and the Faculty of Law, in that order.

For the first time, the sessions were signposted by inflatable Google markers. The caterer supplied vegan regional pies and sustainable cutlery and plates, giving this edition of the BOD a limited ecological footprint.

Also read