About us

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The Maastricht University research group is institutionally embedded in the following ways:

Maastricht University

Maastricht University (UM) is the most international university in the Netherlands. Almost 45% of its students and over 30% of its teaching staff come from abroad. Its programs, commonly taught in English, are highly international in orientation. With almost 16,000 students and 4,000 staff, UM offers a wide choice of academic programs.

Maastricht University is renowned for its innovative approach to learning. It has used Problem-Based Learning (PBL) ever since it was founded and has been an expert in this field for over 35 years. PBL is more than just acquiring knowledge; it is research-oriented and about exchanging knowledge in a challenging and effective way.

Researchers at UM work in multidisciplinary teams and in close cooperation with international institutes, business and industry. Its high-quality researchers have attracted international attention by taking the lead in several large European research projects. At the very same time, Maastricht University maintains strong ties to the region.

The Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences

MUSTS is part of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS), one of the six faculties at Maastricht University. FASoS was founded in 1994. It now has approximately 200 employees and around 1800 students. Its format of education is Problem-Based Learning, a university-wide starting point at Maastricht University. The faculty is internationally oriented and most of its programs are offered in English. Its students come from all over the world. The faculty is located in the center of Maastricht, in two renovated buildings on the Grote Gracht: the ‘Hof van Tilly’ and the ‘Soirongebouw’.

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences offers three three-year Bachelors programs:

This is complemented with an inter-faculty program in Global Studies.

And several one-year Masters programs:

As well as two two-year research Masters are offered:

FASoS Research Institute

The MUSTS research program is part of the FASoS Research Institute, which comprises three other programs:

As MUSTS all these research programs cross the boundaries between the humanities and the social sciences.

Graduate Schools

The faculty has a Graduate School with an intake of about 10 PhD students each year,  most of whom are externally funded.

Most members of MUSTS are also member of the national research school WTMC (Science, Technology, and Modern Culture). WTMC is a collective effort of scholars based in the Netherlands who study the development of science, technology and modern culture from an interdisciplinary perspective. Members of WTMC have backgrounds in the history, sociology and philosophy of science and technology, and other interdisciplinary fields including innovation studies, gender studies and cultural studies. WTMC is pluralistic not only in terms of discipline, but also in terms of objects of study, and methods and approaches used.

WTMC started as a network in 1987, and was officially accredited as an interuniversity graduate research school by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in 1995. Accreditation has been reconfirmed in 2000, 2005 and 2011.