ON-CAMPUS versus ONLINE – A guide to choose your MBA track
With the MaastrichtMBA programme, we offer a choice between two exciting learning formats: the On-Campus and Online track. To help you select the option that best fits your personal and professional needs, we explain the key differences below.
Rest assured!
Let’s tackle your most likely concern first: whichever track you choose, both are part of the same programme: MaastrichtMBA. It means you can always rely on the quality of a Triple Crown accredited programme, an international classroom with a huge diversity of cultures and perspectives, a curriculum that is geared towards applying new concepts in your own business environments, a leadership development trajectory for the personal growth process, and a personal teaching approach that maximises the learning effect.
On graduation, you will receive an MBA degree that is accredited by the NVAO and thus fully recognised as a Dutch degree. This means that if you are an international student, that you may be eligible for an orientation year permit to allow you to stay in the Netherlands for 1 year in order to search for a job as a highly skilled migrant.
Executive MBA | On-Campus
Our On-Campus MBA track offers you a unique journey that is based on a face-to-face and action-oriented learning format. Most of the education takes place during educational weeks on our beautifully redeveloped campus in Maastricht, which functions as a lively and interactive platform to facilitate co-creation with professors and fellow students in a personalised and small-scale setting.
As a student, you only need to physically attend four educational weeks in a year. Between these weeks, you can spread your study load at your own discretion, making this track ideal for people who come from far away.
Executive MBA | Online
Professionals who need maximum flexibility to combine work, study and private life, can opt for the Online track. The core of this track consists of online courses, complemented with three face-to-face residential weeks at Maastricht University and at other renowned partner institutes across the world.
Students in this track are required to complete 35 weeks of online education each year. You are expected to contribute every week but you can plan the exact timing of your participation yourself, making this track ideal for on-the-road professionals and those with continuous on-site business responsibilities.
Degrees of flexibility
Both the On-Campus track and the Online track offer great freedom to draft your own study schedule. It is a unique asset that has proven to attract an enormous diversity of students from all over the world, turning the MaastrichtMBA programme into a multinational, multicultural, and multifaceted learning experience.
Both tracks are flexible in slightly different ways. The On-Campus track concentrates its learning interventions in compact five-day educational weeks, ensuring for maximum autonomy during the off-campus periods. It also provides for curricular flexibility, with students being able to choose elective modules in Responsible Leadership & Sustainability and Digital Business to further personalise their learning journey.
The Online track puts an emphasis on virtual presence and collaboration, meaning it requires your weekly remote attention while traveling to campus is very limited. Flexibility in this track also comes in terms of study locations, with participants being able to select their destinations for two of the three educational weeks from a list of qualified international partner universities.
Overview both tracks
At the end of both journeys, you will not only be better equipped but also better connected through a journey of personal growth to meet organisational and societal challenges, developing your personal leadership skills and turning them into opportunities for a better world.
In the following table, you can find a quick overview of the main features of both tracks.
Click here for the features of both tracks
| On-Campus MBA | Online MBA | |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate | Executive Master of Business Administration by Maastricht University | Executive Master of Business Administration by Maastricht University |
| Target group level | Executive | Executive |
| Accreditations | Triple Crown (AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA) | Triple Crown (AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA) |
| Format | Face-to-face | Online + Face-to-face |
| Structure | Part-time modular | Part-time modular |
| Face-to-face education | 8 educational weeks of which 1 international week | 3 (international) educational weeks |
| Online education | - | 10 online courses |
| Leadership Development Trajectory | Yes | Yes |
| Electives | 2 elective modules on Responsible Leadership & Sustainability or Digital Business | 2 elective educational weeks |
| Length | 24 months (extend up to 48 months) | 24 months (extend up to 48 months) |
| Study load | 70 ECTS | 70 ECTS |
| Faculty | Maastricht University faculty | Online partner faculty across Europe |
| Tuition fee | € 34,500 | € 29,500 |
| Numbers of students | 150 | 100 |
| Average age | 40,6 | 39,2 |
| Average years working experience | 15,2 | 13,9 |
| Different nationalities | 37 | 36 |
