Dank u wel Maastricht

Hoi!

It's been a while... okay, it has been a month now when I arrived at Helsinki-Vantaa airport from the Netherlands. Straight to work mode next morning (no, don't do this if you have gone sleep 1 am) and then getting used to my Finnish life again. And like always the Finnish summer is busy travelling around the country to friends, enjoying life in the festival, summer cottage... haven't even wanted to open my laptop and think my to-do list.

Now I finally have the time to this, after two relaxed weekends with one of my dearest friends combined with family time and with my classmates from the university in our summer cottage. So here goes the last post of my exchange time in Maastricht, the final summary about the spring one month later.

Was it worth it to go?

Definitely. I won't say it was the time of my life every single moment but it was the once-in-a-lifetime experience and even though I have been kinda in exchange for three months in Mauritius before, you cannot actually compare these two due to their totally different culture and geographical location. Just gonna say I enjoyed this one more because of various reasons. The Netherlands is a good country to exchange time for Finnish people. Moving from place to another is really easy and people speak really good English. It is also a safe country, especially Maastricht.

Practical things

Getting to Maastricht is easiest by aeroplane to Schiphol (Amsterdam), Dusseldorf (Germany) or Brussels (Belgium) and then taking a train (or Flixbus from Dusseldorf) to Maastricht that takes about 2 to 3 hours. From Belgium train company you get a 50% discount if you're under 26. I recommend to compare the flight prices and then think about the price from the airport to Maastricht. From Finland, the cheapest with luggage might be Schiphol with Finnair, Transavia, KLM or Norwegian. The train without discounts or day tickets is about 25 euros from Schiphol to Maastricht with a train change in Utrecht or Eindhoven. Hope you have gone to the gym if you choose this; the Dutch trains have stairs inside and the gap is quite steep between the train and platform so be prepared to lift your luggage on the way.

About packing I just say that don't forget to bring some winter clothes. It might be that the Dutch winter isn't winter but this year there was a period when it was minus degrees with really freezing wind - I was so happy with my light quilted jacket and Lapland gloves. If you forget it, don't worry - Maastricht has a good amount of shops where you can find nice clothes a bit cheaper than in Finland.

Accommodation. Oh well. In this, you have a couple of chances. You can choose a room from Maastricht housing that costs about 550 euros per month. You will share toilets, showers and kitchen with 10 people (and cleaning is included in the price). Or you can try to find some rooms in the private market that the prices can vary a lot. If you choose this make sure you START TO LOOK FOR A ROOM IN TIME from fb groups. It is pure luck where and what condition you will get because there's a lot of people looking for a room and also if you don't have the chance to see the rooms forehand. I was quite happy with my room in the private market. I would not live there for a longer period but for five months it was okay. The price was 410 euros per month all inclusive - OK price for Maastricht but just forget the Scandinavian quality-price relation. It might be really nice but it might also be horrible. So it is basically the choice of the expensive student rooms with others where you get to know people maybe more or a bit cheaper private rooms that you have to be a bit lucky to have a good one with nice roommates.

University

Like I told in previous posts, I studied in a program called European Public Health (EPH). The courses were about European institutions and how the EU is controlling public health in member states, looking mother and child care from the perspective of sociology and about ageing in Europe from four different perspectives; demographics and statistics (basic reasons why Europe is ageing), diversity of ageing (sociological perspective), long-term care in Europe and pension systems in Europe. I could have done some more courses but because they would have lasted till the beginning of July I wanted to cut my studies to these three courses.

Studying at Maastricht University... Well, now when the studies are done I have a divided opinion about UM and especially about EPH. On the other hand, I liked the PBL because I felt I learned a lot. I also put more effort into my studying because in the PBL method you have to. But I also have to say that if I had to study for 3 years only with PBL I would get bored. I liked the program subject in overall, almost all the things I learned in spring were quite many things I could not study in Finland and about that I am really happy.

However, I completely disagree with the university's attitude and atmosphere towards students. For example, the official UM Instagram account kinda just chaffed to students when it was Easter, Mother's day or some other holiday posting something like "hey we know it is Easter and you would love to spent it with your family but you have to study to exams". I beg your pardon? The image overall was like studying is the most important thing in life and the university definitely was not helping to decrease the stress levels. Maybe this kind of attitude is really making students study hard but I would be interested to see the statistics about mental health and overall life control in students who study in UM. Moreover, think there's also a big difference in culture and also in the criteria to get into university. In Finland you really have to put a lot of effort even to get into university; for example, to my major, Master program of Sports and Exercise Medicine, the percentage to get in is under 5% of all the applicants but then the actual studying is quite nice and the staff is really cheering and supporting your studying.

I have to say a couple words about the grading too. In UM, the possible grades are from 1 to 10. To pass a course you have to have at least 6 so yes, this actually means you can fail the course with grades 1-5 that I find a bit funny you can fail with 5 different grades. Also, almost nobody has 10 or 9 so basically the grades you get are between 6 and 8. Just try to convert this to Finnish grading haha.

Finally, I have to say I cannot recommend this program to people who go to exchange for UM. The basic reason for that is that this program is lacking resits as the only program in the whole university. I completed 3/4 of my courses and failed my exam strictly on the last course. I contacted to the course coordinator and also the faculty's Board of Examiners to complain about one of the exam questions and asked is there a chance to resit the exam in Finland or do something else to complete the course because I had everything else done. The answer was no and welcome to the resit next spring to Maastricht. So the price of resit would be at least 400 euros and I was supposed to graduate next spring... think again can I leave my resit there. So this program does not get points from flexibility. At least there should be a possibility to do otherwise to exchange students. UM, in my opinion, doesn't get the value and the point of exchange to one's life like this. Moreover, this is quite unfair to regular students too if they get so sick on exam day they cannot enter the exam hall. Isn't it bad for the university too if the student's graduation is dependent from one course?

Overall experience

Despite the last course fail, I am extremely happy that I chose Maastricht. I had an absolutely amazing 5 months in Europe. I met awesome people, I saw astonishing places with breathtaking views and experienced wonderful things. I learned a lot from myself, improved my English (although OLS test shows the opposite haha) and had a chance to live in a different but similar culture to Finland. I visited 10 different countries (the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary) and at least 26 places (Maastricht, Valkenburg, Rotterdam, Kinderlijk, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Volendam, Den Haag, Delft, Hillegom, Keukenhof, Liege, Brussels, Aachen, Dusseldorf, Munich, Salzburg, Geneva, Chur, Tirano, Lake Como (Menaggio, Varenna, Bellagio), Trieste, Pula, Bled, Vienna, Budapest) so I can say I traveled quite much too. Definitely a recommendation to interrail trip! I did a two-week trip from Switzerland, Geneva to Hungary, Budapest.

The whole exchange feels now and felt right after landing in Helsinki just a good dream. Like 5 months of your life has been swiped away and your life continues from the last day of January. It is strange how human adapts itself to the environment and to daily routines.

If a have to grade my overall experience (using the Finnish grading system 4 to 10) I would go with 9. I will always look back to Maasi times and all the things I did and people I got to know. Think it is a must to go back after a while.

Thank you, Maastricht and the Netherlands (and shame on me writing this so late)! You treated me good. 💛 And thank you to everyone who followed my journey via this blog!

From Finland with love,
Tuija