UM in the world
The most international university in the Netherlands
Internationalisation is anchored in Maastricht University’s DNA and can be seen and felt wherever you go across the university. Internationalisation lives in the spirit of our university and is further stimulated by the international members of our academic community. We are proud to be counted amongst the best young universities in the world and offer our students, staff and researchers a dynamic academic environment at the intersection of local, regional and global affairs. Our International Classroom, strategic networks and partnerships, international joint programmes and exchanges, and emphasis on cross-border mobility opportunities for staff contribute to the high quality of our education and research programmes. This allows us to develop skilled and employable graduates who are ready for the national and international labour markets.
With about 50% of our students and 40% of our academic staff coming from abroad, and our active publication in international research journals, UM is the most international university in the Netherlands. Each year, we welcome more than 1,000 foreign exchange students, while almost 40% of our own students participate in study abroad programmes. All of this has earned UM the Certificate for Quality in Internationalisation (CeQuint), awarded by the European Consortium for Accreditation in higher education (ECA). UM is one of the two Dutch universities holding this prestigious certificate.
Fast facts
- 50% students & 40% staff from abroad (100+ countries)
- almost 40% of our students study abroad
- curriculum and research focus on international themes
- Certificate for Quality in Internationalisation (CeQuInt)
- 400 international partnerships
UM in the world
Maastricht University (UM) is located in the Netherlands, but it operates across the globe.
This digital map shows the regions of origin of our students, PhD candidates and alumni. It also lists international partnerships and selected UM projects in different regions of the world.
Internationalisation at the core
We are focussed on further asserting our status as a European university with a global outlook while being closely connected to our surrounding community. Through our strategic vision on internationalisation, and our cooperation with companies, governments and other educational institutions, UM plays a leading role in the creation and diffusion of world-class knowledge and innovation. We also focus on internationalisation at home by developing our international programmes, themes and our efforts in the international classroom. We aim to provide an international learning experience and environment for all students and staff.
Internationalisation is firmly embedded in UM’s CORE (Collaborative Open Research Education) strategic programme 2017-2021 as an integral component of all our activities.
The international faces of Maastricht
Watch the video to catch a glimpse of the international atmosphere of Maastricht, with its international faces representing more than 100 different nationalities.
Partnerships & global outlook
At UM, we constantly seek out new opportunities to collaborate internationally and continue to intensify collaborations with our current partners in various networks. We participate in two leading European and international university networks: the Young European Research Universities Network (YERUN) and the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN). UM also coordinates the Young Universities for the Future of Europe (YUFE) alliance, a major strategic partnership established between eight young research-intensive universities and six associate partners from across Europe. In 2019, YUFE was selected by the European Commission to create one of the very first European Universities.
We currently have cooperation agreements with nearly 400 partners across the world. Complementarity, geographical balance and ranking position are some of the key elements we look at when selecting our partners. As UM is located at the centre of an EU border region that is inhabited by 3.9 million people between Aachen, Hasselt, Heerlen, Maastricht and Liège, we are also actively collaborating with partner universities nearby.
Our Brightlands initiative, Campus Brussels, MUNDO capacity-building projects, and several renowned research centres, provide UM's students and staff with many additional opportunities for personal and professional development
More about our international partnerships in education & research
International fairs
Our staff members regularly participate in fairs abroad. Have a look at the international events we attend.
UM and Europe
Since 1992, Maastricht is inextricably linked with Europe: the Maastricht Treaty seals Europeans’ commitment to shaping their collective identity – a great experiment that is still in full swing.
Virtual Open Day
For international students who can't make it to Maastricht for an Open Day, the Virtual Open Day provides videos on all programmes and locations as well as various aspects of student life.
Hire our graduates
Our globally oriented graduates have experience working in groups with people from different cultural backgrounds and approaching issues from a variety of perspectives.
International staff
39% of our academic staff and 8% of our support staff come from abroad. Combined with more than half of our students coming from abroad, this makes the atmosphere at the university truly international.
Internationalisation in education
Maastricht University has embraced the concept of the ‘International Classroom’, which has become a mindset amongst our students and staff. The International Classroom underlines the benefits in the learning process of our students when they work in small tutorial groups with people from different cultural backgrounds. By approaching problems from a variety of perspectives, students are acquainted with different ways of seeing things and that enhances the quality of the discussions. In this way, the International Classroom prepares students for the rapidly globalising labour market.
In addition, a large proportion of the educational programmes at Maastricht University are accessible to international students from all over the world, as many of them are offered in English. Many of our programmes also have an international or European focus, and all of our programmes include international issues and perspectives. We also offer more than 20 joint and double degrees as well as a variety of exchange and preparatory programmes.
More about the International Classroom
More about our international programmes
Quality education
UM started internationalisation 20 years ago, so its quality has been well established. UM and Wageningen are the only Dutch universities that have been awarded the Certificate for Quality in Internationalisation.
According to ECA, internationalisation is embedded in the DNA of UM. This is not a static process. The UM institute for educational innovation EDLAB continues to work on the further development of the Problem-Based Learning model and the International Classroom. International students in the International Classroom perform better and have a positive effect on their fellow students, according to the Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education, Nuffic.
The quality of our education is also reflected in our rankings:
- UM is the best university in the Netherlands, together with the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (Keuzegids Masters 2019)
- 12 of our master's programmes are ranked 1st in their category (Keuzegids Masters 2019)
- 12 of our bachelor's programmes are ranked in the national top 3 (Keuzegids 2019)
- University College Maastricht takes 1st place in the Best Studies ranking of Elsevier magazine
- Our 3 international colleges (University College Maastricht, Maastricht Science Programme and University College Venlo) have been awarded a seal of quality.
The choice of the language of instruction at UM is based on learning goals, labour market prospects and student group composition. It is documented in the Education and Examination Regulations (OER).
| UM score | National average | |
| Internationalisation | 3.73 | 3.33 |
| Preparation for job market | 3.43 | 3.24 |
| Group size | 4.34 | 4.06 |
| General skills | 4.07 | 3.89 |
UM language policy
Due to the diverse composition of students, staff and researchers, and active participation of UM in mobility and research programmes, a multitude of languages are spoken at all levels in and around the UM campus. UM is a Dutch public university, where the official languages of instruction are Dutch and/or English, located in a multilingual (EU)regional context. Because of this, UM has an integrative and pragmatic approach to language, regarding it as a means to communicate, an instrument to acquire and share knowledge, and the base of (inter)cultural understanding and labour market participation.
UM professors score the highest* on English proficiency of all Dutch universities, a large number of our students are taking part in both free and paid language courses, and an increasing UM participation in initiatives and (European) projects focused on language learning, is bringing in new perspectives and training opportunities.
As the context of language usage is continuously evolving, additional steps will be taken to maintain and monitor language levels and further enhance the opportunities for language learning across the UM and the wider community.
The rules for the usage of language at UM can be found in the Code of Conduct for Language.
At the basis of the UM language policy is the concept of lifelong learning, through which three groups of UM stakeholders are actively encouraged to learn and use languages. These three stakeholder groups are:
- UM students
- UM employees
- UM alumni and members of the wider community
International dimension of UM research
Research done at Maastricht University focuses on topics of global relevance and is placed in an international context. Cooperation with renowned universities and research institutes in the region and beyond is a vital element of UM research. Just a few examples of UM’s international research centres are the Centre for European Research in Maastricht (CERiM), the Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross border cooperation (ITEM), the Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM) and Regenerative Medicine Crossing Borders (RegMed XB). With our global character, UM attracts academics and students that wish to pursue their research and education in an inclusive and international-oriented setting.
International community & cross-border mobility
We believe it is of the utmost importance to create a welcoming atmosphere and to facilitate the rapid integration of the international members of our community, both students and staff. We do this through targeted social activities, buddy programmes and additional services such as visa support and language courses.
We also work to promote the cross-border mobility of our students and staff and encourage participation in exchange programmes with our partner universities. In addition, many of our alumni work abroad, and we do our best to keep them connected with the UM community.
More about our services for international & exchange students
More about our international staff & cross-border mobility
More about our alumni in the world
News
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How do we become global citizens?
Monday, December 2, 2019Read moreHerco Fonteijn received €250,000 from the NWO to advance global citizenship education.
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York Maastricht Partnership announce € 2,2 m of research projects
Tuesday, October 15, 2019Read moreThe York Maastricht partnership (YMP) has announced its first round of funding, supporting £2m (€2.2m) of research collaborations across nine distinct projects – including initiatives to tackle serious health problems and solutions to global sustainability.
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‘Internationalisation is in our DNA’
Thursday, July 11, 2019Read moreAs a university in a border region in the heart of Europe, we experience every day that the future also lies in Europe. A broad, pragmatic view of reality is needed in the debate on internationalisation that has intensified recently, with strong words and fearful images such as a 'tsunami of foreign students'.
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Towards a truly European university
Wednesday, June 26, 2019UM-led Young Universities for the Future of Europe (YUFE) is one of just 12 alliances of European universities selected by the European Commission to develop and implement the first models for a European University.
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Young Universities for the Future of Europe (YUFE) is chosen to create one of the very first ‘European Universities’
Wednesday, June 26, 2019Young Universities for the Future of Europe (YUFE) is one of just 17 alliances of European universities selected by the European Commission to develop and implement the first models for a European University.
Read more -
ITEM and UHasselt carry out cross-border research together
Tuesday, May 7, 2019On 8 May, the Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross-border cooperation and Mobility (ITEM) of Maastricht University (UM) and UHasselt sign a cooperation agreement in the field of cross-border research in the presence of the governors of the provinces of Belgian and Dutch Limburg.
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“Europe belongs to all of us”
Thursday, April 18, 2019In 2018, European Studies alum Joost van den Akker became one of the regional ministers of Limburg, “the most international province of the Netherlands”. In his eyes, the university is a “European musketeer” whose pursuit of internationalisation and Europe is a winning model.
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Applications for the UM International Staff Week 2019 are now open
Thursday, March 28, 2019Maastricht University (UM) proudly presents its 1stInternational Staff Week (ISW). This ISW is aimed at international colleagues from our partner universities in the YERUN and WUN networks, as well as at colleagues from other partner universities.
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First graduates double degree law programme UM and University of Aruba
Monday, March 11, 2019The first students of the double degree programme in International and European Tax law received their diploma. By successfully completing this one-year master’s programme, the nine graduates simultaneously acquired the Master of Laws in International and European Tax Law from Maastricht University (UM) and Master of Laws in Aruban Law from the University of Aruba.
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Maastricht University helps build a European University
Friday, March 1, 2019Maastricht University is joining forces with seven other universities from as many different European countries. Together they form the YUFE alliance (Young Universities for the Future of Europe).
Read more