An intensive year
Participation in the Foundation Programme is intensive. According to Caroline Huijts, it’s 'much more school-like' than the first year of a bachelor's programme. Huijts teaches skills training, among other things, and also works as a recruiter. 'We prepare participants for Maastricht’s brand of problem-based learning, and apply it as much as possible in this stage as well. The students take language lessons in four different groups. They’re assigned to these groups based on their individual level. Students with a lower level of language skills will receive more hours of teaching than those who come in at a higher level.'

'The students also receive several hours of academic skills training each week. This includes learning to summarise information, take notes, structure an argument and take part in a debate. They may spend more hours in the classroom than the average bachelor’s student, but it’s fewer hours than at a secondary school. They receive approximately 16 hours of instruction per week, along with hours of self-study, their study load is around 40 hours per week.'

'We offer ten different skills-training modules, all of which they must successfully complete", Joris van Poecke adds."The students meet deadlines and hand in their homework – and if they don’t, they must complete the make-up assignments. They are also given marks for their attitude in the tutorials and their study mentality. In other words, it’s all very structured. And they learn a lot from that. There is an interim and a final exam, sometimes in the form of a paper or a special assignment like giving a presentation or poster presentation.

Benefits of the UM Foundation Programme
'The major benefit is that it's a programme by and for UM specifically', says Joris van Poecke. 'Maastricht University is the only Dutch university to have developed its own Foundation Programme'. Maastricht has other advantages to offer as well, such as its safe and small-scale setting. The city's cultural offerings have seen enormous growth, as have its sport facilities. 'People often consider it a plus that, if asked for, we have close contact with the parents of our students before they apply', Caroline Huijts explains. 'Many parents spend a few days in Maastricht, gathering all the information they need, before signing their children up for the Foundation Programme. They're quite pleased to hear that we have plenty of experience with young international students. Afterwards, they often express relief at having been able to see and hear what we offer for themselves.'

Living on your own
The Foundation Programme participants don’t live on a campus or in a Guesthouse: instead, they must find their own rooms. Caroline Huijts explains that they are properly informed of this in advance. 'Because the programme is so small, we have lots of contact with the students before they arrive in Maastricht. We send them information about Maastricht Housing and other room-letting agencies during the summer.' Joris van Poecke adds: 'Once they actually live and study here, they more or less organically create a network for themselves. We try to encourage this by pairing certain students with one another. Those who are really good in English language or maths, for instance, are matched with students who are weaker in those areas.' And finding a room to rent? 'There's no shortage of student rooms here in Maastricht, so finding one is never an issue', he concludes reassuringly.