Maastricht University (abbreviated as UM; ) is a public research university in Maastricht, Netherlands. Founded in 1976, it is the second youngest of the fourteen Dutch universities.
In 2023, 22,976 students studied at Maastricht University, 59% of whom were students from outside of the Netherlands, with over 4,000 employees. About half of the bachelor's programmes are fully offered in English, while the other half is taught wholly or partly in Dutch. Most of the master's and doctoral programmes are in English. Besides traditional programmes, Maastricht University also has three honours liberal arts colleges: University College Maastricht and the Maastricht Science Programme in the same liberal arts tradition. The satellite University College Venlo opened in 2015.
History
Maastricht University was officially established in 1976. Faced with a shortage of medical professionals, the Dutch government decided in the late 1960s that a new public institution of higher education was needed in order to expand the country's medical training facilities. Political leaders in the province of Limburg, most notably Sjeng Tans, the chairman of the Labour Party and former member of the Limburg provincial council and Maastricht city council, successfully lobbied for the new medical school to be established in Maastricht. This academic institution would be vital to sustain the intellectual life of the city, and indeed the whole province. Moreover, it was argued that the establishment of a university in Maastricht could contribute to the government's restructuring efforts in this part of the Netherlands, which was experiencing economic challenges following the collapse of the Limburg coal mining industry.
The newly established school chose not to await official recognition but to start its educational programme in September 1974, adopting an innovative approach to academic education in the form of problem-based learning. About 50 students enrolled in the first academic year. By the end of 1975, the Dutch Parliament eventually passed the statute needed for the institution to acquire national educational funds and to be able to award academic degrees.Staatsblad van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden ("State Journal of the Kingdom of the Netherlands"), 1975, p.717. The new university, named Rijksuniversiteit Limburg (State University of Limburg), was officially established on 9 January 1976, when Queen Juliana of the Netherlands signed the university's founding charter at a ceremony in the Basilica of Saint Servatius. Sjeng Tans became the university's first president.
Soon after its establishment, the university gained political support to increase its funding and to expand into other academic fields. The faculty of law was created in 1981, followed by the faculty of economics in 1984. In 1994, the faculty of arts and culture and one year later the faculty of psychology were established. The faculty of humanities and sciences started in 2005, containing a variety of organisational units, such as the department of knowledge engineering and the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance. Together with the faculty of health, medicine and life sciences (established in 2007 as a merger between the faculty of health sciences and the faculty of medicine) Maastricht University currently has six faculties.Annemieke Klijn, The Maastricht Experiment, 2016.
The university was renamed Universiteit Maastricht in 1996 and added its English-language name in 2008. As of 2010, Maastricht University consists of six faculties offering 17 bachelor programmes, 56 master programmes and several Ph.D. programmes.
2019 cyber attack On December 23, 2019, Maastricht University suffered a major cyber-attack, more specifically a Microsoft Windows ransomware attack using "Clop". The ransomware encrypted almost all Windows systems used by Maastricht University, making it impossible for students and staff members to access any university online services during the Christmas break. A ransom was set from the offenders, which allowed a decryption of the university systems after Maastricht University paid €200,000 in a Bitcoin transfer. The lessons resumed with no delays on 6 January, with most online services again available to both students and staff members.
In 2020, the public prosecutor service seized the cryptocurrency account in which the ransom was paid. Once the ransom was converted from Bitcoin to Euros, the university was able to recover €500.000, double of what was paid.
Campuses Maastricht University is located in buildings in two separate locations in Maastricht. The arts, humanities and social science departments are housed in a number of historic buildings in the city center, while psychology, the medical and life sciences are based in the modern Randwyck campus on the outskirts of the city.
City centre campuses The university's arts, humanities and social sciences faculties are located in Maastricht's city centre, west of the river Meuse. Most of the university's inner city properties have official monumental status. As many of these buildings were facing abandonment at the time of their acquirement, the development of an urban university campus has contributed to the preservation and liveliness of Maastricht's historic city centre.Beijer, Hans et al. (2006). MonUMent, published to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of Maastricht University.
University buildings in Jekerkwartier The first building that was obtained by the university was the former Jesuit monastery and seminary at Tongersestraat, largely dating from the 1930s. Here, in 1974 the newly established medical school started. After the faculty of medicine moved to premises closer to the newly constructed university hospital, the Jesuit monastery became home to the Faculty of Economy, which is now the university's largest academic unit in terms of student numbers. The building was expanded in the 1990s to include the university restaurant (mensa in Dutch) and a large lecture hall designed by Dutch architect Jo Coenen.
The Faculty of Law is housed in the building known as Oud Gouvernement in Bouillonstraat, which was completed in 1935 as the provincial government building. It was acquired by the UM in 1986 after the provincial government had moved to its new premises on the river Meuse in the southeastern part of the city. Opposite lies Slijpe Court, a 17th-century mansion that in 2002 was refurbished to house the Department of Knowledge Engineering of the Faculty of Humanities and Science.
The university's administrative headquarters is located at Minderbroedersberg, in a former Franciscan monastery, which dates back to 1699 and was later used as a court house and prison. The UM acquired the building in order to make it their administrative center in 1999. The Minderbroedersberg, with its Aula (main hall), also serves as the university's primary location for official academic ceremonies, such as Ph.D. conferrals.
At the bottom of the hill lies the former convent of the Bonnefanten, now the university's Student Service Center, as well as a visitor center, including a gift shop. This building, which dates back to 1627, served as a convent for nuns originally from Liège who were referred to as "bons enfants", "good children". In the twentieth century, the city's art museum was established here and later took its name from the building, Bonnefantenmuseum. In 1979 the building became the main branch of the university library, until the library moved to its current location. The oldest part of the library building at Grote Looiersstraat was constructed in 1755 and served as the city's poor house and military hospital. In the 1970s, the city's public library was built in the garden. In 1999 the city library moved to its current location at Centre Ceramique. The old library was then acquired by the UM. After major renovation and expansion works, the university library relocated here in 2003.
University College Maastricht is located at Zwingelput in a 15th-century béguinage, named Nieuwenhof. Maastricht Science College has its new home since 2012 in the renovated Hustinx Mansion in Kapoenstraat, which has a richly ornamented façade and a courtyard that is now covered.
Since 2013, the university has acquired several buildings on the site of the former Tapijn barracks, adjacent to the city park (Stadspark). Although outside the medieval centre, the area is still part of the Jekerkwartier. In 2019 the main U-shaped buildings were refurbished and enlarged with an underground atrium. They now house UM Learning Spaces. Other buildings at the Tapijn Campus are used temporarily by Knowledge Engineering and to help start-up enterprises.
University buildings elsewhere in the city centre Several other university institutions are housed in buildings elsewhere in the city centre. The UM Language Centre is based in an old canon's house at Sint Servaasklooster. The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS) currently occupies three adjacent buildings on Grote Gracht. Soiron Mansion, built by the architect Matthias Soiron for his two brothers, canons of Saint Servatius Church, the former Ursuline girls schools, and Tilly Court, built for the Count of Tilly, the military governor of Maastricht, both date from the 18th century.
Randwyck campus The Randwyck campus was developed from the 1970s onwards and has become the center for the university's psychology, health, medicine and life science activities. Here, plans for the Brightlands Maastricht Health Campus are aimed at strengthening the scientific and economic impact of Randwyck. The Randwyck and Brightlands campuses are not to be confused with the failed Calatrava Campus, also in Randwyck, which in 2008 had to be abandoned after construction had already begun, because the cost spiraled out of control.
The focal point for the Randwyck campus is the academic hospital (azM), which moved here from its original location on the West bank of the Meuse river in 1992. Some of university buildings are physically connected to the hospital, built in the 1990s. The university and the AZM work together in the Maastricht University Medical Center+, established in 2008.
In 2019, UM bought an existing office blok in Paul-Henri Spaaklaan, which after refurbishment will house the Department of Knowledge Engineering.
Satellite campuses In recent years, the university has opened offices in the northern Limburg city of Venlo, the Belgian capital of Brussels and the city of Bangalore, India.
The Maastricht University, Campus Venlo is located in the renovated "Raad van Arbeid" building at Nassaustraat, close to the center of Venlo. Maastricht University currently offers two Master's programmes (Global Supply Chain Management, and Health Food Innovation Management) and a Bachelor's programme (University College Venlo) at this campus. Courses at University College Venlo started in September 2015.
Organisation Governance
At the central level, the university is governed by the Executive Board, consisting of a president, a vice-president and a rector. The Executive Board appoints faculty deans, other administrators and professors and has general management responsibilities. It is advised by the Supervisory Council that vets for instance the budget. The University Council, an elected body representing all members of staff and students at the university, has a limited number of decision-making powers as well as general advising responsibilities regarding the university's teaching and research programmes and in organisational and budgetary matters.