Maastricht University

Maastricht University (abbreviated as UM; Dutch: Universiteit Maastricht) is a public research university in Maastricht, Netherlands. Founded in 1976, it is the second youngest of the thirteen Dutch universities.

In 2021, 22,383 students studied at Maastricht University, 56% of whom were foreign students, 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.

Maastricht University regularly ranks as one of Europe's leading universities. The university has been placed in the top 300 universities in the world by five major ranking tables. Maastricht University was at 88th place in the Times Higher Education World Ranking in 2016 (127th as of 2021), and 4th among Young Universities (6th in 2021). Amongst others, Maastricht University's master's programme in International Business is ranked 25, being in the top 25 of the best business programmes in the world according to the Financial Times, and its law faculty is ranked in 3rd place within the European Union and 23rd worldwide by the Times Higher Education World Ranking for the 2021-2022 period. In 2013, Maastricht University was the second Dutch university to be rewarded the 'Distinctive Quality Feature for Internationalisation' by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO).

The University of Maastricht is one of the most important schools of political economy in the world.