Universiteit Maastricht

Universiteit Maastricht (Maastricht University), founded in 1976, is the second youngest university in the Netherlands. It has about 11.500 students and 3000 employees at the moment, 30% of whom are not Dutch.

About half of the courses offered are in Dutch, the other half in English, such as Business Administration (International Business) at the Faculty of Economics, (European Studies) at the Faculty of Arts and Culture and all the course at the University College Maastricht.

The university is known for its Problem-based learning method as an alternative way of teaching, working with discussions and open-ended problems. In the year 2004 Universiteit Maastricht was ranked first (of all Dutch Universities) in a research report on quality published by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OC&W) (press release). In 2005, the Faculty of Economics was regarded better than the same faculty at Oxford University by the influential German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche(website). At the beginning of the academic year 2005-2006 the university was once again ranked no. 1 in the Netherlands by the Dutch publication Elsevier.
The University is set to participate in the renowned case competitions at McGill University and the University of Southern California (USC) at the beginning of 2006. Various other publications have also rated the university to be the best in the Netherlands. The University is currently accredited by both EQUIS (press release) and AACSB (press release), a rare feat among European universities.

Faculties

Faculty of Arts and Culture
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Faculty of General Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Law
Faculty of Medicine
Faculty of Psychology
Faculty of Life Sciences
Universiteit Maastricht Business School
Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG)
Maastricht University College

Research Schools and institutes

Main research schools

CaRe Netherlands School of Primary Care Research
EPP Experimental Psychopathology
EURON EUROpean Graduate School of Neuroscience
Heart and Vascular diseases
Ius Commune
METEOR Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organisations

The UM participates in the following research schools:

Huizinga Institute UM participation in the research institute CWS
ICO UM participation in the research Institute of Medical Education
iBME integrated Biomedical Engineering. Co-operation with the University of Twente.
SIKS UM participation in the research institute IKAT
School for Human Rights Research
VLAG Nutrition, food Technology, Agro-biotechnology and Health
WTMC Netherlands Graduate School of Science, Technology and Modern Culture

Research institutes

CAPHRI Care and Public Health Research Institute
CARIM Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht
CWS Arts and Culture Research
EPP Experimental Psychopathology
GROW Research Institute Growth & Development
H&G Maastricht Brain & Behaviour Institute
ICIS International Centre for Integrated assessment & Sustainable development
IKAT Institute for Knowledge and Agent Technology
Maastricht Centre for Human Rights
METRO Maastricht European Institute for Transnational Law Research
METEOR Maastricht Research Institute/School of Economics and Organizations
NUTRIM Nutrition and Toxicology Research Institute Maastricht
ROA Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market
UNU-MERIT (Maastricht Economic and social Research and training centre on Innovation and Technology), UNU-MERIT is also part of the United Nations University

There are faculty research units and assosiated institutes (research website)

Notable Professors

Wiebe Bijker: Professor of Technology and Society, member of the KNAW (Dutch Royal Accedemy of Science) and together with Trevor Pinch the founder of Social Construction of Technology (SCOT)
Franz Palm: Professor of Econometrics, member of the KNAW (Dutch Royal Accedemy of Science)
Maurits Allessie: Professor of Physiology, member of the KNAW (Dutch Royal Accedemy of Science)
Andre Knottnerus: Professor of General Practice, member of the KNAW (Dutch Royal Accedemy of Science), President of the Health Council of the Netherlands
Luc Soete: Professor of General Economics, Director of research institute UNU-MERIT (which is also part of the United Nations University), member of the group of key thinkers for the Lisbon Strategy

External links

Universiteit Maastricht
Observant University newspaper, with weekly English section.

Universities in the Netherlands