Moreover, it was argued that the establishment of a university in Maastricht could contribute to the government's restructuring efforts in this part of the Netherlands, which was experiencing economic challenges following the collapse of the Limburg coal mining industry.

By the end of 1975, the Dutch Parliament eventually passed the statute needed for the institution to acquire national educational funds and to be able to award academic degrees.

The faculty of humanities and sciences started in 2005, containing a variety of organisational units, such as the department of knowledge engineering and the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance.

On December 23, 2019, Maastricht University suffered a major cyber-attack, more specifically a Microsoft Windows ransomware attack using "Clop".

The university's arts, humanities and social sciences faculties are located in Maastricht's city centre, west of the river Meuse.

As many of these buildings were facing abandonment at the time of their acquirement, the development of an urban university campus has contributed to the preservation and liveliness of Maastricht's historic city centre.

Opposite lies Slijpe Court, a 17th-century mansion that in 2002 was refurbished to house the Department of Knowledge Engineering of the Faculty of Humanities and Science.

The university's administrative headquarters is located at Minderbroedersberg, in a former Franciscan monastery, which dates back to 1699 and was later used as a court house and prison.

The Minderbroedersberg, with its Aula (main hall), also serves as the university's primary location for official academic ceremonies, such as Ph.D. conferrals.

This building, which dates back to 1627, served as a convent for nuns originally from Liège who were referred to as "bons enfants", "good children".

The oldest part of the library building at Grote Looiersstraat was constructed in 1755 and served as the city's poor house and military hospital.

Maastricht Science College has its new home since 2012 in the renovated Hustinx Mansion in Kapoenstraat, which has a richly ornamented façade and a courtyard that is now covered.

The Randwyck campus was developed from the 1970s onwards and has become the center for the university's psychology, health, medicine and life science activities.

The focal point for the Randwyck campus is the academic hospital (azM), which moved here from its original location on the West bank of the Meuse river in 1992.

In 2019, UM bought an existing office blok in Paul-Henri Spaaklaan, which after refurbishment will house the Department of Knowledge Engineering.

[14][independent source needed] At the central level, the university is governed by the Executive Board, consisting of a president, a vice-president and a rector.

The format allowed students to integrate their discipline and research work into all areas related to society, health and disease.

Since 1992 staff and students are based in the Randwyck district, near the University Hospital (Academisch Ziekenhuis Maastricht or AZM) which opened in 1991.

The building underwent major renovation works around 2009, which included a new common room and lunch counter for students, a garden terrace, and an additional lecture hall in the former ballroom.

[31] Ph.D. candidates are employed by the university or faculty on full-time, four-year contracts with regular, entry-level wages and employee benefits.

[34][independent source needed] In 1974, Maastricht's newly established faculty of medicine was only the second in the world to adopt the problem-based learning method.

[35] A tutorial group usually consists of 14 to 16 students, meeting once or twice a week to discuss self-identified problems on the basis of cases or situations described in the course manual.

Even though traditional lecture-based teaching is at odds with the primarily self-guiding PBL approach, it has become customary in many programmes at Maastricht to include at least some lectures in courses to supplement the tutorial-based structure.

[43] In terms of specific areas of studies, THE[24] ranks Maastricht University at 23rd in the field of "Law," 64th in "Clinical & health" and 72nd in "Business & Economics" in the world for 2022.

[46] Among its excellent facilities, Maastricht University has one of only 5 fully operational Tesla 9.4 MRI scanners found worldwide allowing for ground breaking research in fields of psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience.

[48] Research at Maastricht University concentrates on three major themes: Quality of Life, Learning and Innovation and Europe and a Globalising World.

Professor Rainer Goebel, director of the affiliated Maastricht Brain Imaging Centre (M-Bic), has been rewarded several large international research grants.

The internationally renowned Tissue Regeneration group of Professor Clemens van Blitterswijk moved to Maastricht University in February 2014.

Brainport 2020 is the name of a programme that aims at campus development in four locations in the province of Limburg, in cooperation with the local government, business sector and knowledge institutions in the region: In 2013, nearly 16,000 students studied at Maastricht University, 47% of whom were foreign.

It provides news, background articles, columns and educational information in Dutch and English, directed primarily at the university community.