{"id":5994,"date":"2025-08-28T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T00:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/?p=5994"},"modified":"2025-07-11T15:03:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T05:33:36","slug":"why-maastricht-was-the-perfect-city-for-my-exchange-semester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/2025\/08\/28\/why-maastricht-was-the-perfect-city-for-my-exchange-semester\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Maastricht was the perfect city for my exchange semester!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo credit: (Mia) Maastricht carnival in Vrijthof square – a festival celebrated in the region.<\/p>\n

Mia from Flinders University, undertaking an exchange at Maastricht University, the Netherlands during semester 1 2024.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Netherlands was the first place that I have ever travelled to overseas, let alone moved to, to live by myself. So heading to a small(ish) city like Maastricht, I was pretty worried that I wouldn’t be able to find my way around or that I wouldn’t fit in, but everyone from the city and from the university were so welcoming and helpful. Maastricht is a student city, so there are lots of international students around, as well as locals, which definitely makes you feel less out of place. Pretty much everyone I came across spoke English as well, further easing my worries. The city is very accessible by bus, but most students choose to hire or buy a bicycle, as it is often the easiest and quickest way to get around. Its also a fun way to explore the parts of the city that you might not as easily be able to reach by bus (and good exercise).<\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span>he study part of Maastricht university is fairly different to how we learn at Flinders. It takes more of a problem-focused approach, and places students in a bit more control over the direction of their learning. It was very interesting and valuable to experience a different style of learning and teaching.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I joined the Erasmus Student Network for my time in Maastricht, which is a great way to make friends and have regular activities and commitments that aren’t study-related. I met many great people through joining ESN and the meetings and events gave me something\u00a0to look forward to each week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Studying abroad taught me many new things. While it came with challenges and pushed me so far out of my comfort zone, and I got very homesick, it allowed me to grow and learn so much as a person, and I met some incredible people that I will always remember and have a special connection with. I was so sad to leave Maastricht at the end of my semester, despite the not always glamourous Dutch weather. The city is full of history, culture, nature, student-life, beautiful architecture, and wonderful people. I am so glad I chose Maastricht for my exchange semester!<\/span><\/p>\n

Photos:<\/strong><\/em> The Historic Maastricht City Hall + Sunset over the Maas river <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo credit: (Mia) Maastricht carnival in Vrijthof square – a festival celebrated in the region. Mia from Flinders University, undertaking an exchange at Maastricht University, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6382,"featured_media":5995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[170,173,314,352,428,456,487],"class_list":["post-5994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-experience-blogs","category-outbound-student-experiences","tag-europe","tag-exchange","tag-maastricht-university","tag-netherlands","tag-semester-exchange","tag-study-abroad","tag-travel"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6382"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}