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Universiteit Maastricht

UM

Maastricht University (UM), founded in 1976, is a Dutch public university and one of the best young universities in the world.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Auke Zijlstra (Member of the European Parliament)

29 Sept 2025 · Horizon

Meeting with Henriette Van Eijl (Head of Unit Research and Innovation), Philippe Cupers (Seconded Head of Unit Research and Innovation) and

20 Mar 2025 · Invitation Netherlands Federation University Medical Centres

Meeting with Tineke Strik (Member of the European Parliament)

28 Feb 2025 · situation in Libya

Meeting with Kim Van Sparrentak (Member of the European Parliament)

26 Feb 2025 · Ethics and AI

Meeting with Christian Ehler (Member of the European Parliament)

24 Apr 2024 · Science policy

Meeting with Christophe Clergeau (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

26 Oct 2023 · Déjeuner avec Ellen Vos Ph.D professeur de loi de l'Union européenne, sur les enjeux juridiques des nouveaux OGMs

Meeting with Tineke Strik (Member of the European Parliament)

19 Oct 2023 · soft enforcement of EU migration law

Meeting with Daniel Freund (Member of the European Parliament) and Transparency International Liaison Office to the European Union and

26 Jun 2023 · Treaty reform

Meeting with Pascal Arimont (Member of the European Parliament)

13 Oct 2022 · Home office for cross-border workers

Meeting with Pascal Arimont (Member of the European Parliament)

9 Mar 2022 · The Future of the European Cross-border Regions

Meeting with Diederik Samsom (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans)

12 Jan 2021 · Virtual meeting with Brightlands on Chemelot Circular Hub

Meeting with Diederik Samsom (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans)

9 Oct 2020 · Speech at "Webinar The EU Green Deal and the Future of the Modern Corporation"

Response to Achieving the European Education Area

25 Aug 2020

Maastricht University is coordinator of the YUFE Alliance, selected by the European Commission in 2019 as one of the first pilot European Universities. Our Alliance brings together 10 universities and four non-academic partners working towards building a scalable model of a student-centred, non-elitist, open and inclusive European University that will contribute to transforming higher education into the engine of a cohesive society and a competitive Europe in a fast changing, globalised and digitised world. The YUFE Alliance welcomes the vision of an open and inclusive EEA that targets all levels of education. In this context, the YUFE partners are fully committed to contributing to excellence of European academic education, research and innovation, and at the same time also firmly believe that part-time and non-traditional learners should not be left behind. In addition, we must strive for equality and equity for education access in all EU member states. We therefore especially support the further development of EU actions fostering close linkages between instruments strengthening the EEA, EHEA and ERA. We believe that only the close collaboration of higher education institutions with their surrounding research & innovation ecosystems, businesses, governments, and citizens will allow for a true transition towards an inclusive and effective life-long learning system. This, in turn, will allow for individual learning paths enabling citizens to train skills, competences and gain the knowledge they seek to acquire to contribute to society, the labour market and the European project. European Universities have a crucial role in this regard, as they have the potential to serve as a model and a platform for the future of EEA. Since they are based on intense, systematic and structured collaboration in education, they can act as pioneers in achieving set goals. Regarding the creation of the EHEA we wish to specifically comment on two points addressed in the Roadmap that we also tackle in our work: • Framework for Cooperation with Member States We support putting in place an enabling framework for cooperation with and among Member States. We observe that not all Member States are equally supportive of the vision for an EEA. Such a framework should enable cooperation by tackling existing legal, financial, structural and cultural barriers hampering the transformation of European education. Barriers are still present, especially at the national level that hinder the creation of e.g. a European degree, the accreditation and quality assessment of (multilateral) joint programmes and the recognition of academic / professional qualifications that we see as essential building blocks of a true EEA. The framework should foresee concrete actions towards facilitating the full roll out of these building blocks to further support their implementation across Europe. Clear communication from the European towards the national level on the added value of the further integration of the European education sectors will furthermore contribute to the support from national and regional actors for the actions proposed by the Commission and implemented by higher education institutions. • Digitisation of Higher Education The COVID-19 pandemic shows that consistent digitisation of education is no longer a “nice to have” but should become an integral element of our education system(s). YUFE values that the Commission so quickly integrated the lessons learnt on digital education in their vision for the universities of the future. We believe that citizens that are given the possibility to train their digital skills and competences and that are comfortable in collaborating in digital environments will be able to contribute to the transition towards more resilient, sustainable, innovative and fair European societies and economies. In the context of the EEA, sufficient support, concrete tools and funding instruments will have to be made available to education ins
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Meeting with Mariya Gabriel (Commissioner)

23 Jun 2020 · Digital education and the YUFE Virtual Campus, Universities of the Future