Employment conditions and development opportunities

At UM, you will enjoy attractive terms of employment aligned with the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO-NU). Benefits include competitive salaries, flexible hours, hybrid working options, generous leave, a holiday allowance and an end-of-year bonus.  

Through our Staff Career Centre, we actively support your ongoing learning, development and future career mobility. We help you achieve your career goals with a variety of programmes, including refresher courses, personal development workshops and guidance for job transitions. We also provide leadership training programmes and even personalised training for all management levels, from aspiring to experienced leaders.

We also offer an online learning platform called GoodHabitz that allows you to follow professional and personal development modules at your own pace.

Your personal wellbeing is also important to us. Our VitalityWorks strategy focuses on helping you stay fit and increasing your vitality, for instance through movement and mindfulness programmes that can be done in the workplace. And through UM SPORTS, you can follow numerous health and wellbeing programmes for staff as well as join our state-of-the-art University Sports Centre. 

As the most international university in the Netherlands, 40% of our academic staff and more than half of our students come from abroad. International cooperation and a global citizenship mindset are woven into the fabric of our daily work. We inspire each other to reach across borders and embrace diverse perspectives. We are, and always have been, firm advocates of the internationalisation of education and research because we see every day how it enriches our work and our lives.    

With English-led activities and extensive language support, we foster an environment where our international staff feel included and valued. We also ensure a welcoming atmosphere for new international staff through social events, buddy programmes, visa assistance and more, facilitated by our Knowledge Centre for International Staff. 

Additionally, we promote global engagement and cross-border mobility through our international partnerships, encouraging our employees to participate in international conferences, collaborations and visiting professorships. For both academic and support staff, we also facilitate job shadowing at partner universities abroad through the ERASMUS+ mobility grant. 

Are you an early career academic or a young support staff member considering Maastricht University? The Maastricht Young Academy (MYA) and Young UM Professionals (YUMP, intranet link) offer platforms to amplify your voice and support your development. MYA provides a space for young academics to share their concerns and ideas on important issues, while YUMP brings together young support staff from across UM’s faculties and service centres to facilitate dialogue and collaboration. Both communities focus on personal and professional growth, ensuring you have the support and opportunities to thrive at UM. 

We offer clear career paths for academic staff, aiming to reduce temporary contracts and promote permanent positions through tenure tracks. We also support the Recognition & Rewards movement and assess our academic staff more broadly and transparently. 

At Maastricht University, our recruitment process is guided by the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers, as well as the Dutch NVP application code. In implementing the HR Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R), we strive to provide our researchers with an inspiring and stimulating work environment. Our commitment ensures that our recruitment procedures and HR policy are grounded in quality principles that promote a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace.

To learn more, download our HR Excellence in research internal review & action plan 2022-2025 (PDF).

We value input from our employees in making continuous improvement to our working environment. That’s why we developed the Sustainable Employability Monitor in collaboration with UM academics in this field. The survey assesses employee experiences in areas such as work pressure, inclusivity, leadership and career development. The insights from the monitor are pivotal in shaping our action plans, which are developed with a large cross-section of employees through a bottom-up approach and aim to improve our workplace for everyone.