14 November 2022

Master’s Open Day: "A good pitch from the university"

Around 1100 prospective master's students visited Maastricht University's six faculties last Saturday during the open day held twice a year. They came to experience the atmosphere and learn more about the master's programmes, problem-based education, the UM buildings and the good life in Maastricht.

Given the number of registrations, online interest had been considerable in advance, but the final turnout was considerably lower. The Master’s Open Day platform had been open for several weeks with programme presentations and live Q&As for those who could not be physically present on the day itself. These were largely students from abroad.

The gorgeous autumn weather - sunny and dry - certainly contributed to the good atmosphere on campus. There, about 60 per cent of visitors came from the Netherlands. Among the other nationalities, most came from Germany, Belgium and Italy, in that order.

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Some figures:

Overall approval rating: 8.7
49% of registered visitors showed up
60% of all visitors were Dutch

A photo gallery

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Photos: Philip Driessen

Feedback

Feedback was largely positive and the information sessions and informal discussions with students and staff were highly appreciated. On average, people gave the sessions an 8.7.

More than 200 visitors took the trouble to fill in a short evaluation form. "UM is really good at marketing," was the compliment from one of them. "Very informative and to the point." Other responses were more comprehensive: "Very focused on explaining the benefits of this specialization without trying to ‘sell’ it to the interested parties. Excellently explained and the speaker had an answer to every question.” And: "I liked how the presenter talked about topics that future students really care about in a way that was easy to understand."

Of course, there were also points of criticism, of the sound quality, for instance, especially on Zoom, and the "slow" pace of some presentations. There was also advice for the next open day: "Maybe more student life explanation", and, "Ask maybe an alumni to tell a bit how important the problem based learning has been for him/her to support the working career." But overall, the consensus was that this had been a "Good pitch from the university".