Student Report
Name of the University: Maastricht University
Exchange semester: Fall 2012
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
After we had learned that we had been offered a place at the University of Maastricht in
March of 2012, we received information via e-mail, a month later, about how we could
register as students online and what documents we needed to attach to the application. When
we got the acceptance letter from Maastricht University, we were also provided with
information on how to register for courses and other practical material. Further, we were
regularly updated on important dates via e-mails and what would be happening in the first
week we arrived (introductions, registrations, course plans etc). Every time we had any
questions, our e-mails were replied within a day or two.
Travel
Our journey started at the airport in Oslo, from which we flew to Amsterdam. From
Amsterdam we took a train to Maastricht, which takes approximately 2 ½ hours. As of
experiencing problems, the only thing we would suggest for future exchange students is to
book an earlier flight. We arrived at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam at around nine o’clock in
the evening and missed the direct train to Maastricht. This led us to having to switch train and
even a bus. It may also be easier to book a flight to Brussels and take the train from there, as it
is closer to Maastricht. The school also provided pick-up service at the airport for exchange
students earlier in the day, but we missed this, as the timing was inconvenient for us.
Housing
We were provided with a website through which we could find and book housing. The rest we
had to figure out ourselves. We ended up at a guesthouse a little further away from the main
guesthouse building (7 minutes by bike), but actually we found out later that it might have
been for the best. This is due to our housing (at Talienruwe/ Reinartsingel) being more like an
apartment you shared with just one other person. While at the other guesthouses you share
both kitchen and bathrooms with 12-20 people. In addition, it was a more quite surrounding
compared to the other guesthouses were you could hear people partying in the corridors and in
general there was more traffic of people throughout the building. There is the opportunity to
find an accommodation through private persons, but we felt it would be safer to apply for
housing through Maastricht Guest housing in case of any issues that might have occurred.
Costs
Approximately how much per month did you spend on rent, books, food, transportation, and
other personal expenses?
Rent
Books
Food
Transport
Other
NOK 4000
NOK 500
NOK 1400
NOK 200
NOK 2000-3000
Culture and language
When it comes to language we did not experience any problems as all Dutch people we met
spoke English very well. At the University there were many exchange and international
students from all over the world and everyone spoke English very good as well. The school is
known for their high percentage of international students.
How were the possibilities to experience the country and the culture?
Great opportunities were provided by the ESN who arranged both trips and parties in order to
familiarize people with the culture and the country.
Cultural and social effects from the exchange experience
We hope that the exchange experience will have a positive influence on our future career
possibilities. We took the chance to go to an unknown place and we learned a lot about
ourselves as individuals as well as how we deal with different challenges. We also
experienced how it is to cooperate with other nationalities, which we most surely will
experience again in job related situations. The only worry is that the school is not well known
in Scandinavian countries. In Germany and the Netherlands the school has a very good
reputation and is known to be one of the hardest and best universities.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Please describe:
The school is located near the city center, looks like an old castle from the outside and is
commonly referred to by student as Hogwarts as it is very confusing sometimes from the
inside. Almost right by the school one can find the library, small coffee shops and takeout
places. As mentioned the city center is 5 minutes away and there one can find the main
shopping street as well as restaurants and bars. The school has approximately 16 000 students,
44 percent of whom are foreign students. The university attracts a large amount of German
students as it is a well-known university and it is close to the German border. Approximately
800 students choose to go to Maastricht University each semester on exchange and around 70
nationalities are represented at the school at the moment.
Course registration
We registered for courses prior to our arrival, as the courses need to be approved by BI. The
procedure was done online and the deadline for the registration was around June 15. We
experienced some troubles as the web site tended to timeout for some reason, but it worked in
the end. We later found out that the site was being renewed at the time of our registration,
which could have been the reason for our troubles. The matter seems to be resolved and future
student should not have any issues with the process. In the first week of school it is possible
to try and switch course and one can drop out of a course at any time.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
Any special events/holidays:
Other:
28.08.2012
03.09.2012
14.12.2012
22.10-26.10 and 17.12-21.12
11.11 Start of Carnival season
Arrival
The first day of school started with registrations of all exchange students. When we came, we
were handed envelopes with our names on it, which contained information brochures and our
student cards. Later in the day there was a welcoming ceremony where different people from
the University held speeches, and the police who spoke about the different rules and laws of
the country. We were also introduced to the mayor of Maastricht who was so kind and came
to greet us welcome, as well as to tell us a little about the city. In the afternoon we were
assigned to small groups of 10 people and we had a “buddy”, who is a student at the
University, and who showed us around the school, the city, who explained and gave us a
walkthrough the teaching technique and we could ask any questions that we had both socially
and school related. He was our “buddy” for three days of the first week. Sadly, we missed the
introduction week that takes place one week before school start, due do conflicting schedules.
We heard that it was an amazing experience and would definitely recommend future students
to participate if they have the opportunity.
The International Office
The international relations office is located at the University, and is open between 10 and
11.30 four days a week. They were very cooperative and understanding whenever we needed
help with anything. Every piece of information we received was always sufficient and stated
in English. We never experienced any problems due to language.
Promoting BI and Norway
We were enrolled in Master courses and as the Master program is only one year at the
University, it was difficult to promote our school for future exchange. In the tutorials, when
presenting cases, we would always try to find a case from Norway to promote our country. A
lot of people were intrigued and stated that they would very much like to come and visit
Norway. When it comes to bachelor students we got to know in our spare time, we talked a lot
about how we do things at BI and recommended the school for their Masters if that was an
option for them.
Social activities
We met a lot of amazing people during our stay, native as well as exchange students.
Everyone was extremely open and welcoming which resulted in mixed grouping of friends.
We would arrange dinners and get-togethers with other exchange students as well as native
students. We had a wonderful experience and hope to stay in touch with as many of our new
friends as possible.
There is a student organization, which is called ESN. The people who were on the board were
regular students at the University, and a lot of them are international students who take their
masters and bachelor degrees, though most of the board members were Dutch. As the
exchange period is in the fall it leaves little time for exchange students to get involved in such
organizations. No one we met who was on the board was an exchange student.
The ESN arranges many get-togethers throughout the semester. Each Monday there are teamparties at the exchange student pub, they arrange trips to other countries every weekend
almost and other entertaining events.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
Maastricht University divides the semester into two so-called blocks. The first block is from
beginning of September to the end of October where students only have two courses and have
the exams at the end of the month. Block two starts at the beginning of November and ends at
the middle of December where once again the exams are at the end of the block. This was
very practical as it gave us the opportunity to focus on two courses at a time. Maastricht
University is known for their Problem Based Learning (PBL) style. This means that there is
no lecturer who preaches to the choir apart from the introduction lecture where the course is
presented and information is given about the exams and papers that need to be handed in.
Normally the classes are divided into groups of 15 people and every group has an assigned
tutor who supervises the tutorials (group meetings). The students have to prepare articles and
book chapters for each tutorial where a discussion is initiated and everyone is expected to
participate. The tutor is responsible for the grading, which is based on the level of your
participation. All the instructions that are provided are in English so we did not have any
problems with understanding what was expected of us and what we should prepare and do
from tutorial to tutorial. The tutorials are a mix of practical and theoretical teaching as the
discussions that occur need to be linked to the theory. The workload for each session was very
overwhelming in the beginning, and somewhat stayed that way throughout the whole
semester. For each session articles and chapters need to be prepared as well as assignments
sometimes. Overall, the workload was heavier than we had experience from BI. Sometimes it
felt like there was never an end to the work and each time we were done preparing one thing,
we had to start preparing something else.
As mentioned earlier, we had tutors who supervised the tutorials. In case of questions or
problems it was no problems to approach them for help. They were always very
understanding and helpful. As for the professors responsible for the courses, we only saw
them at the introduction lecture, but if there were any problems it was possible to speak
directly with them. The relationships in each tutorial group varied from tutorial to tutorial, but
mostly the group dynamics were good. Normally there are only one or two exchange students
in each tutorial, which was a little intimidating at first, but once we had spent a little time with
the group it was fine. They understood that it was an adjustment process for us when it comes
to the teaching style and they were always very helpful when it came to whatever we needed
help with.
Course materials
All the course material was provided in English, from books to articles. The articles were
from time to time pretty tough as they were very academic and complicated. Sometimes it
was hard to comprehend the main points and the conclusions. The books on the other hand
were much easier and very understandable and straightforward.
Exams
As each tutorial group had their own presentations and discussions of articles and book
chapters it was hard to base the exams on that. One tutorial group may have discussed the
subject in a different manner and may have come to different conclusion. The final exams
were therefor based on the main literature we read for each tutorial. All of the courses we took
involved group and single presentations (almost every session), discussions were encouraged
in every tutorial, assignments, term papers and the final exams were multiple choice based.
Class attendance was mandatory, but one could miss two tutorials in each course during the
block.
Library and technology
The library is located 2 minutes of walking distance from the school and is open every day of
the week. It is equipped with a cafeteria, computers, printers, and scanners and of course a lot
of book. Students have access to all the resource while the library is open. Normally it is open
from 8.30 to 22, but during exam periods it is open from 8.30 to 24.00.
Power point is frequently used during presentations in tutorials. This is basically the only
technological tool put in use.
Description of courses
Please list below all the courses you took while on exchange, including as many details as
possible. Your comments are extremely useful for BI and for future exchange students,
include information on the level of difficulty, relevance to your studies, if the course was
practical/ theoretical, any enrolment issues, etc.
Course code & name
Master/
Bachelor
International Business Master
Research
Exam form
Retailing
Distribution
3-hour multiple Some
SPSS Elective
choice exam
knowledge
and Master
Entrepreneurship and Master
Innovation
Prerequisites
3-hour multiple None
choice exam
3-hour multiple None
choice exam +
essay questions
Approved
as
Elective
Elective
Comments
One of the “easier”
courses
we
had.
Interesting
One of the most
interesting
courses.
Learned a lot, although
the term paper was very
difficult.
Demanding, not wellstructured, did not get
much out of it.
Any other experiences/comments about your exchange experience?
For us the exchange period was an amazing experience we will never forget from the social
aspect of it. We made a lot of new wonderful friends who we shared some incredible times
with and who we are going to stay in touch with. The academic aspect of it is another story.
First of, there is constant pressure with the presentations and hand-ins for each tutorial in
addition to term papers. At some point, we did not even know where to start. Since the
semester is divided into two blocks with two subjects in each block, everything gets much
more intense. Second, not everybody is comfortable with speaking during class. This is
something one would have to get used to, as it is demanded that everybody is contributing to
the discussion in every single tutorial. Two tutorials without speaking would lead to a failed
grade. Since the tutors in the group mostly observes, it was sometimes hard to comprehend
what was right and what was wrong of the things that were discussed, which makes it hard
when preparing for the exams. At times one got the feeling that nothing was learned and we
were basically responsible for learning everything ourselves without any guidance. The group
projects helped a little as the regular students were very helpful, but we could not exactly ask
them about every single thing we were unsure of. Even though we thought that BI was very
hard at times, at least one had the opportunity to catch a little break. Overall, if we got the
chance to do it again, we would definitely do it, but at least we would have known what we
could have expected. It is not possible to prepare based on other people’s perceptions and
experiences. One has to be there oneself to understand how it works.
Other recommendations:
You must definitely get a bike as the distances all through the city are very short and it is very
practical. For accommodation, the C-building and the P-building are closer to the city center
so if you have the opportunity, book a room here. Be aware that it is very demanding
compared to home, so do not underestimate what is expecting you. As an exchange student it
will be a shock the first couple of weeks and you will feel under pressure all the time
throughout the whole semester. But then again, you will have time to enjoy life as well. Make
sure to be a part of the Cantus party (you have never been a part of something like this
before). Three Cantus parties are arranged throughout the semester and make sure to get the
tickets in time, as this party is very popular and always sells out within 20 minutes. Enjoy!
Please don’t hesitate to ask the International Office for our contact information if there is
anything you want to ask.