Maastricht University is THE WORST

To anyone considering applying to Maastricht university, DON'T!

This university is an absolute horror show. From the administration, to the professors (note some of the professors are really lovely and really try), to their facilities, to their examination procedure, almost everything sucks!

Maastricht had been my first choice university for my masters since my first year as a bachelor student, so I was super excited when I got accepted. Unfortunately, this excitement subsided after my first week at Maastricht. Here are some of the many reasons for why I, and many of my co-years hate it here:

1. The administration. At first their administration seemed quick and efficient - their admissions office is really good at quickly signing up students. But after I had accepted my spot the troubles started. They wouldn't sign the forms I needed to apply to financial support from my country (because for some reason that was against their policy), they wouldn't give me my student card, even though I asked for it 3 times a month for over 6 months, their communication is slow and rarely answers your questions, and many other instances that almost drove me and other students to tears in frustration.

2. The have so many random rules, and bureaucracy, that no-one can remember, so things are extremely slow, and nothing ever works and staff are afraid to make decisions because they're not sure if they're complying with the rules. E.g. Remember how I didn't get my student card. During the exam period the library is overcrowded, su students have to show their student card to prove they're studying at UM. I did bring my letter of enrolment and passport, to show that I did study at UM, but was not let into the library, "BECAUE ONLY THE STUDENT CARD PROVES THAT YOU ARE WHO YOU SAY YOU ARE".

3. Forget trying to apply for any kind of disability support (e.g. ADHD or Dyslexia) for the exams, it took me and two other people from my year almost 8 weeks of back and forth to get any kind of support, because they did not want to accept doctors certificates from other countries (even though they were in English). My co-year went to get her dyslexia tested AGAIN which set her back several hundred euros.

4. Talking about exams, rules here are random and retarded again. Exams frequently start late because of poor organisation, but no extra time is awarded. Evne when exams start on time, students who sit in the front row get the exams first and get to start writing, while those sitting in the back have to wait a good 3 minutes before they also get to start. Still everyone has to stop writing at the same time. When we complained to the board of examiners they said "THERE IS NO OTHER WAY THAN DOING IT THE WAY WE'RE DOING IT" - I must have dreamed all the times I've taken exams at my old university and high school, and examiners managed to have everyone start at the same time, and give us all the time they promised us. This is just another example of the ineptness of the administration at this university.

5. Professors don't seem to give a **** about you. While I have to excuse some, because they're amazing and lovely people, that just seem very stressed, it is still extremely frustrating to barely ever get a response, have your professors forget who you are even after you've talked to them dozens of times (and no, it's not the size of this university, my old uni was way bigger and professors still managed to remember their students). I assume the biggest problem is that many of the professors here are way to over worked, and many of them have responsibilities other than teaching and research. E.g. one of our professors was so busy that we had to cancel 3 out of 9 tutorials with him.

6. The workload is way too high. I know students frequently say this, and when I think back to me saying this during my bachelor I have to laugh. But the fact is that to keep up with the workload at the masters level we have to work 80-100+ hours a week. This causes students to have mental and physical health issues, and many of the students in my class started taking study drugs to manage the pressure. If this was oxbridge, I'd understand, but maastricht is a second class university, and not worth this much work. You should rather look into going to a more reputable university, that likely offers a lower workload.

7. Maastricht university's stats about being so international are extremely deceiving. I don't have the actual numbers, but it feels like well over 80% of the international students are germans, which really isn't that much fun if you're not german, because many (NOT ALL) of the Germans group together and form these german communities, that can be quite hard for other foreigners to get into.

8. Adding to 7. the level quality of English spoken here is extremely low. I, as a native speaker, have gotten noticeably worse at speaking english, and many of the students and professors speak so poorly that it can be hard to understand them, not adding to the quality of the courses.

There are surely many more reasons not to chose Maastricht University, and of course this is mostly just my experience (though many of my classmates and friends here, largely agree with my points). Just do yourself a favour and chose a different university.

Thats a shame to hear about your bad experience. May I ask what subject you are taking? And how do you plan to rectify this situation, will you be leaving for anouther uni or will you be staying on for the duration of your course?

Whew! That is quite the rant. It would help if you mentioned where you did your undergraduate degree (the answer might explain why you find the workload so difficult),since all we know about you is that you are a native speaker of English. I visited Maastricht with my son for an open day at their University College,and I was rather impressed with the university on the whole (my son,less so)...the event was well organized,and everyone from the school was extremely hospitable. I think your point about them inflating their "international" credentials is valid. I suspect over 75% of their foreign students are German or Belgian...but the tone of your post is so strident, that it calls into question your credibility.

Yeah we have people like you coming and complaining about their negative experience and their workload at MU every year. The university is not for everyone and I am sorry to tell you but by the way you are ranting here about how **** everything is you remind of the same people who come here every year and who just don’t have what it takes to manage their studies. It is very easy to start complaining at the university if you are failing or struggling but in reality, from what I read, you seem to not understand that you probably are just not good enough to make it here like so many others.

Sorry for the late reply. I did my undergrad at University of Colorado Boulder and an exchange semester at UCL. I had actually already gotten in to Maastricht when I applied for my bachelors but at the time I got a better financial support package from UC. I think the main reason that I wanted to do my masters at Maastricht was that I had not been able to do my bachelors there, and a lot of my best friends ended up going to Maastricht and had a good time (they did the University College Maastricht thing). I retrospect I regret my decision, because I could probably have gotten into way better colleges than Maastricht for my masters and probably had a better time. Aren't we all smarter in hindsight?

Sorry for the late reply but I would just like to give an update.This is in terms of the Bachelor but it’s essentially the same problems because it’s the same university. I just now will be transferring to another university because I’m just not satisfied with how things are run. Besides some of the things what you wrote (which are still pretty true sadly) there has been consistent problems with the course coordinators and tutors as well. In my faculty they told us the wrong mandatory book we needed almost more than halfway through the course. (Thank god by this point I’m out)Also tutors in most cases are students as well and/or random people from other faculties. They sometimes don’t know what we are even doing or tell us the wrong things. And the main problem was they couldn’t help or explain things to us. This was so frustrating to a lot of us because how can we be examined on something we don’t know or understand. The funny part is, the course exam for my faculty was notorious about the high fail rate. At this point instead of blaming students maybe blame the school. I have had experience with high work load (from IB) so it wasn’t much of a problem however it was the quality of the work that was missing. It felt like busy work or things they give you just to keep you busy but doesn’t really benefit you. The international aspect is a no. People are mostly German and this does create a barrier and as someone who doesn’t speak German, you feel left out. Overall I don’t think this university is all worth it. It’s frustrating and way overhyped on open days. I think you can get way better education elsewhere. I wish the best of luck to all current and future students!!

To anyone considering applying to Maastricht university, DON'T!

This university is an absolute horror show. From the administration, to the professors (note some of the professors are really lovely and really try), to their facilities, to their examination procedure, almost everything sucks!

Maastricht had been my first choice university for my masters since my first year as a bachelor student, so I was super excited when I got accepted. Unfortunately, this excitement subsided after my first week at Maastricht. Here are some of the many reasons for why I, and many of my co-years hate it here:

1. The administration. At first their administration seemed quick and efficient - their admissions office is really good at quickly signing up students. But after I had accepted my spot the troubles started. They wouldn't sign the forms I needed to apply to financial support from my country (because for some reason that was against their policy), they wouldn't give me my student card, even though I asked for it 3 times a month for over 6 months, their communication is slow and rarely answers your questions, and many other instances that almost drove me and other students to tears in frustration.

2. The have so many random rules, and bureaucracy, that no-one can remember, so things are extremely slow, and nothing ever works and staff are afraid to make decisions because they're not sure if they're complying with the rules. E.g. Remember how I didn't get my student card. During the exam period the library is overcrowded, su students have to show their student card to prove they're studying at UM. I did bring my letter of enrolment and passport, to show that I did study at UM, but was not let into the library, "BECAUE ONLY THE STUDENT CARD PROVES THAT YOU ARE WHO YOU SAY YOU ARE".

3. Forget trying to apply for any kind of disability support (e.g. ADHD or Dyslexia) for the exams, it took me and two other people from my year almost 8 weeks of back and forth to get any kind of support, because they did not want to accept doctors certificates from other countries (even though they were in English). My co-year went to get her dyslexia tested AGAIN which set her back several hundred euros.

4. Talking about exams, rules here are random and retarded again. Exams frequently start late because of poor organisation, but no extra time is awarded. Evne when exams start on time, students who sit in the front row get the exams first and get to start writing, while those sitting in the back have to wait a good 3 minutes before they also get to start. Still everyone has to stop writing at the same time. When we complained to the board of examiners they said "THERE IS NO OTHER WAY THAN DOING IT THE WAY WE'RE DOING IT" - I must have dreamed all the times I've taken exams at my old university and high school, and examiners managed to have everyone start at the same time, and give us all the time they promised us. This is just another example of the ineptness of the administration at this university.

5. Professors don't seem to give a **** about you. While I have to excuse some, because they're amazing and lovely people, that just seem very stressed, it is still extremely frustrating to barely ever get a response, have your professors forget who you are even after you've talked to them dozens of times (and no, it's not the size of this university, my old uni was way bigger and professors still managed to remember their students). I assume the biggest problem is that many of the professors here are way to over worked, and many of them have responsibilities other than teaching and research. E.g. one of our professors was so busy that we had to cancel 3 out of 9 tutorials with him.

6. The workload is way too high. I know students frequently say this, and when I think back to me saying this during my bachelor I have to laugh. But the fact is that to keep up with the workload at the masters level we have to work 80-100+ hours a week. This causes students to have mental and physical health issues, and many of the students in my class started taking study drugs to manage the pressure. If this was oxbridge, I'd understand, but maastricht is a second class university, and not worth this much work. You should rather look into going to a more reputable university, that likely offers a lower workload.

7. Maastricht university's stats about being so international are extremely deceiving. I don't have the actual numbers, but it feels like well over 80% of the international students are germans, which really isn't that much fun if you're not german, because many (NOT ALL) of the Germans group together and form these german communities, that can be quite hard for other foreigners to get into.

8. Adding to 7. the level quality of English spoken here is extremely low. I, as a native speaker, have gotten noticeably worse at speaking english, and many of the students and professors speak so poorly that it can be hard to understand them, not adding to the quality of the courses.

There are surely many more reasons not to chose Maastricht University, and of course this is mostly just my experience (though many of my classmates and friends here, largely agree with my points). Just do yourself a favour and chose a different university.

Yeah we have people like you coming and complaining about their negative experience and their workload at MU every year. The university is not for everyone and I am sorry to tell you but by the way you are ranting here about how **** everything is you remind of the same people who come here every year and who just don’t have what it takes to manage their studies. It is very easy to start complaining at the university if you are failing or struggling but in reality, from what I read, you seem to not understand that you probably are just not good enough to make it here like so many others.

Background info: I have studied Economics at the Maastricht University for around 1,5 years prior to transferring to another top 10 UK institution to purse a degree in Business Administration.

I) INTERNATIONAL FACULTY: This is a straightforward lie. Although The university is even being sued by the Dutch government for having "too many international students" in its faculty, 82% of these students are coming from Germany. Specifically, the NorthRhein Westphalia region consisting of cities such as Aachen, Cologne, Dusseldorf etc... So if you are looking to meet people and have groups of friends from diverse backgrounds, I suggest you re-consider your choice of university. Although many German students can be friendly and accepting, it is commonly known throughout the region that racism towards many occurs on a regular basis.

II) TEACHING STAFF: Other than lecturers that you have the privilege of listening to 2 - 4 times a week, the rest of the classes are held by second year students or above that are not qualified in teaching. They are selected by the department heads depending on their grades, irrespective of their knowledge of the English language or their ability to interact with students and teach them. Worse, there are many instances where tutors have personal relations of a close nature to students simply because they are either friends, or.. you get the gist. To top this, there are certain persons of high staff positions that cannot even spell the names of notable people in the field correctly. Have you heard of Allione Musk ?... the founder of TESLA Motors ?

III) STUDENT-FRIENDLINESS: Well, quite frankly speaking the front desk receptions, student services staff as well as general administration are very helpful and positive when interacting with students in need of assistance. However, when we turn the page to professors and the board of examiners, it is a social graveyard. You want a personal feedback on your exam? Shame. You forgot your student card but they can simply check via the school system and compare to your id to let you sit an exam for which you studied 10 weeks? Shame.You didn't understand a particular subject or topic and you need your tutor's help after the lecture or tutorial? Shame.

Do you know if this is the case for University of Amsterdam or Erasmus University Rotterdam? Is there any dutch university that you know is good? My dream was to go to university in the UK, but the government has tripled the tuition fees for EU students and I'd pay, at least, £81,000, in tuition alone, for a degree at a top UK university and we can't access Student Finance either so it's literally impossible for me...

Hey there !

As far as I am concerned, there are two Dutch universities that you should apply to if you to get a really good education, social life, as well as a degree considered world-class. The top one I would say is Tilburg University (For Economics and related social sciences programs). Here the lecturers are always well informed and helpful as well, the campus is located at a more central location where you are 2.5 hours away from Amsterdam and another 2.5 from Brussels. The second best would be University of Amsterdam. Again the name is well known and respected and the campus is just wonderful. You could say it gives out the vibes of a European style Harvard. Massive library, renown lecturers, possibly the craziest (if not the best) night-life and social life in the world. The only issue with this university would be that there are too many distractions around for students that like to socialise more often than average. If you have issues with concentrating or focusing on your goals over long term, you may have to suffer through continuous sadness of having to compromise on personal life and just settle to study for your degree.

As per concerns over finances, I resided in the Netherlands as an undergraduate student with around €600 per month (excluding rent) with a lavish lifestyle. You can definitely enjoy night outs, invest in hobbies, afford a relationship, visit neighbouring countries with less than this amount too. Make sure not to invest in a house bigger than a studio, preferably go for a dorm at year 1

Trust me, in both universities, you would get the dream of attending a top university. Both will provide a very good quality of education as well as a good degree that people deem noteworthy. Better yet, these institutions are accredited world-wide so if one day you decide you really want to attend a school at the UK, you can apply for a transfer with a scholarship if you keep your grades high on your first year at one of these schools. Colleges and Universities at the UK do like to take students from these institutions due to their status in the ranking listings for postgraduate programs too.

Hope it was helpful !

Thank you so much! It's definitely a huge help!
I've been quite sad, ever since the British government announced EU students would pay International tuition fees (which, like I said are around £80,000). Then I turned to dutch universities, although I was under the impression (apparently ignorantly so) that they wouldn't be recognised as top universities in the UK and I wouldn't be given a chance by top UK employees. When I saw this thread, I felt even more down, because I thought that maybe this was the case for the other highly ranked universities in the Netherlands (again, I was wrong) and my dream of studying hard in high school to get into a renowned university was over...

I will definitely check those universities out! Thank you, again, so much for taking your time to answer, you've helped me tremendously and I feel so much better now!