Student Handbook - School of Business and Economics - Maastricht ...

Student Handbook • Academic Guide SBE
1 Maastricht University
SBE Academic Guide • Student Handbook
A warm welcome to Maastricht University. Maastricht University is the youngest
university in the Netherlands (founded in 1976) and currently has about 13,100 students
and 3,500 employees. The university has the following Faculties and Schools: Arts
and Social Sciences; Maastricht University School of Business and Economics (SBE);
Health, Medicine and Life sciences; Law; Psychology and Neuroscience; School of Health
Professions Education; Universiteit Maastricht Business School; Maastricht Graduate
School of Governance; Department of Knowledge Engineering; International Centre of
Integrated Assessment & Sustainable Development; Humanities and Sciences and the
University College Maastricht. In 2007, the School of Business and Economics was ranked
number one in Choice/Keuzegids Hoger Onderwijs, the Netherlands guide to higher
education. The educational programme offered at Maastricht University has two unique
features:
1) This university was the first Dutch institution to adopt a problem-based learning
approach to teaching in all of its educational programmes.
Maastricht University was founded initially because there was a growing need for an
additional medical faculty in the Netherlands. However, the government was only going
to support this new university under the condition that it would add something new to
academic education itself. Maastricht University (or State University of Limburg as it was
first called) decided to implement a different educational system, which was already in use
in Canada: Problem Based Learning (PBL). This method has an interdisciplinary character,
which means that the programme is not based on separate subjects but on integrated
theoretical and practical problems. These problems are arranged around themes and
studied in blocks. By working on problems and cases both in groups as well as individually,
you discover those areas where your knowledge is lacking. Specialists, staff, and teaching
material specially developed for the system, are at your disposal. You must, however, make
an effort yourself: the Maastricht system is ‘student-centred’ rather than ‘teacher-centred’.
2) All educational programmes have a strong international perspective.
Maastricht University has developed a strong international orientation in most of its
education programmes. The development of the European Common Market, the changing
relations between Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe, the increasing
interdependence between East and West and North and South, and the development
of technology and communication have all contributed to the gradual transition of the
world into ‘one global society’. Today’s students, the professionals of tomorrow, must
therefore be prepared to function in a highly internationalised environment. They not
only need a basic understanding of international developments in their field of study,
but also an understanding of social and cultural differences. They must learn to speak
one or two foreign languages and must gain some international experience during
their university studies. Its location at the crossroads of the Netherlands, Germany,
Belgium and close to Luxembourg and France, offers Maastricht University an excellent
opportunity to integrate this international dimension into its educational programme.
These two characteristics attract a lot of students; especially the latter makes Maastricht
University a very interesting study environment for you!
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