SBE- the most international university
December 2020- Genia Foo
Did you know that Maastricht University opens its door every year to over 180 nationalities?
Though the current pandemic has made it tougher for international travels, Maastricht remains a welcoming city for students! The atmosphere in this city is unlike many other Dutch cities. Not only will you be surrounded by students, but you will notice that most of them come from outside of The Netherlands. In Maastricht University (UM), roughly 50% of the students and 40% of the academic staff are non-Dutch — which shows how international we are. With the available option to take classes online at the moment, UM continues to attract international students. On average, the nationalities of the students in our faculty are 25% Dutch, 40% German, 15% Belgian, 15% other European and 5% from outside EU. When we talk about exchange students, it’s normally the opposite. This also entails that it is common practice for us to communicate in English during tutorials to maintain an inclusive environment. Our tutors and professors also facilitate this practice of common language (“lingua franca”) even during breaks.
Due to the pandemic, our faculty has developed a new educational format for the remaining of this academic year — “Education takes place ‘on campus’ if possible, online if necessary”. Our education has adopted a hybrid format of online tutorials complemented with small team sessions on campus. Students also have the option to take classes completely online. These tutorial groups remain essential for the PBL approach. The PBL classroom has created a setting for us to connect with different cultures, share different ideologies and point of views. As an international student myself, I enjoyed meeting people from all over the world, whom I would have never thought of crossing paths with. Forming part of the international classroom is an excellent way to prepare us for a future in an international market, as we get to discuss real-life cases and work together in group projects during the academic year.
After studying at UM for 1.5 years, I have always felt like my diverse background was always celebrated by my fellow classmates and students! So if you’re curious about how international UM really is, feel free to ask one of us!
