Are you highly motivated and looking for a programme that gives you the freedom to pursue your own interests? Do you want to be part of a diverse yet close-knit academic community that encourages discussion and debate? University College Maastricht is a Liberal Arts and Sciences Honours College that provides small-scale and individualised bachelor's education. At UCM, you will be part of a truly international community, working and socialising with students from more than 50 countries. With the support of our committed staff, you can choose from more than 150 different courses in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Sciences to build an academic profile that helps you meet your goals.

As an honours college, UCM is challenging and highly rewarding. By allowing you to compose an individual curriculum, the UCM programme ensures that you:

develop a basic understanding of a wide variety of academic disciplines
become an expert in a specific academic field
learn to think academically
become a self-directed learner
work well in international teams

Problem-Based Learning

Courses at UCM are taught using Problem-Based Learning (PBL). PBL gives you an academic problem and challenges you to solve it. Using a combination of small-group work and individual research, you seek possible solutions to the problem and get feedback to help you refine your answers. You are in control of your own education, and the tutor is there to facilitate your learning. The PBL format helps you retain information better, teaches you to think about problems independently and develops your interpersonal skills. All teaching at UCM happens in small groups of no more than 12 students. This small-scale setting encourages you to be an active participant in class, gives you space to develop your own ideas and ensures that you receive personal attention from tutors.

After three years at UCM and 180 ECTS, you’ll qualify for an internationally recognised Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree. You can leave the university and enter the job market, or you can apply for a master’s programme in the Netherlands or abroad. Your self-designed curriculum determines which master’s programmes you qualify for. Your Academic Advisor will help you compose a curriculum that matches your desired master’s programme.

Some UCM graduates have stayed at Maastricht University, while others have moved on to other Dutch universities. UCM graduates have also been admitted to prestigious master’s programmes at international universities such as:

• University of Oxford
• Columbia University (New York)
• The London School of Economics
• University College London
• Sciences Po (Paris)
• Hertie School of Governance (Berlin)
• Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Career possibilities

As UCM allows you to design your own curriculum to suit your individual interests, talents and ambitions, you have an almost unlimited range of future career possibilities. UCM graduates have gone on to a wide variety of professional careers, in both the Netherlands and abroad, including:

• management consultant
• researcher
• government policy advisor
• assistant to an EU Commissioner
• think tank member
• entrepreneur
• industrial designer
• pharmacologist
• stock trader
• NGO project coordinator
• forensic psychologist
• theater programmer
• museum curator
• education innovator

With careful planning, you can take the courses required to be admitted to most master's programmes. However, some more vocational programmes, such as Dutch Law and Clinical Psychology, are likely to have additional requirements.