Maastricht University – University College Maastricht

This course offers an introduction to basic Dutch. The course consists of a weekly lecture, and roughly four hours of self-study and homework per week. The course focuses on basic speaking and listening skills. 

Debating skills are a key component of academic life. This means that you should be able to defend your own position and refute opposing positions by providing substantial arguments based on relevant academic sources. In this project, participants prepare, present, and defend with peers a position for an academic debate on a specific topic. The available topics emerge out of a wide range of UCM courses from different concentrations. Students can submit their preferences for topics beforehand but should be prepared to commit to any topic to which they are assigned. At the start of the project, each group discusses their topic and settle on a concrete proposition for their final debate. After that, groups split into a PRO (“yes”) and a CON (“no”) side. The two sides prepare separately for the final debate. A crucial part of the preparation for their final debate is writing a collective position paper based on self-study of academic sources. The purpose of this position paper is to be informed about the topic of the debate, by developing arguments, anticipating counterarguments, and coming up with rebuttals to these counterarguments.

This course concentrates on a number of philosophical approaches that help us understand the relationship between media and technology and our lived experience. Media theory and whether specific technologies and media, like writing and print, provoke structural changes in patterns of thought, action and experience are discussed. The course also deals with the critical philosophies of technology in the Marxist tradition, the hermeneutic tradition and the feminist tradition as well as contemporary debates about ethics, labor, and the environment. These topics encourage us to think about how, to paraphrase the historian Melvin Kranzberg, media and technology are neither good nor bad nor are they neutral. A variety of different media and technical artifacts, including AI, health care technologies, books, social media, the alphabet, and education are considered. This course requires that students have completed an upper division course in the humanities as a prerequisite. Prior knowledge of philosophy is recommended.

In this project students engage in a deep reading of a text linked to seminal themes and issues in the humanities, social sciences, or natural sciences. Deep reading is a process of thoughtful and deliberate reading through which a reader actively works to critically contemplate, understand and ultimately enjoy a particular text to the fullest extent possible. Rather than selectively skimming for facts or speed-reading for summaries, the process of deep reading means slowing down, re-reading and even stopping periodically to more fully contemplate specific pages or passages. Having considered and recognized what a text says, deep reading goes a step further and strives to reflect upon the broader implications or consequences of the text, i.e. what does the text ‘do’? Although deep reading is a profoundly personal experience, within the context of problem-based learning the process of deep reading also rests on the premise that profound understanding and appreciation of a text emerges through group-based discussion and deliberation. A single seminal text (classic or contemporary) or cohesive set of readings will be assigned by tutors. Tutorial group meetings and individual and collaborative work. Final paper in the format of an extended book review, presentation, and reflective essay.

To write effectively in an academic context is to be able to convey ideas in a manner that is clear, concise, and engaging. Writing in an Academic Context gives you the tools and techniques for this by teaching you about topics such as coherence, cohesion, conciseness, and hedging. The course is extremely hands-on and mostly focused on what comes after the first draft has been written. It helps polish writing skills by 1) teaching the underlying mechanisms of effective academic writing, and 2) providing weekly practice sessions with targeted peer (and tutor) support that serve to consolidate theory and writing skills. In doing so, the course looks beyond the content of academic articles to examine the fundamental mechanics of writing to adapt writing for different audiences across disciplines and concentrations. This course is interactive and writing intensive.

This course explores the intricate dynamics of ecosystems and the application of resource management strategies. Students engage in practical exercises and fieldwork, gaining hands-on experience with environmental measurement tools and real-world resource management scenarios. This course examines human dimensions behind managing forests, ranges, water, and fish/wildlife along with the ecological processes that enable these resources or cause difficulties in managing them. Participants are equipped with a comprehensive understanding of ecological systems, the skills required for responsible natural resource management, and a newfound understanding of the natural world.  Recommended pre-reqs include Introductory Biology, Geology, and Sustainable Development.