Key facts
The MSc International Business at Maastricht University runs 12 months in Maastricht, Netherlands, with tuition of €2,694/year (EU/EEA) · €21,500/year (non-EU/EEA) — 2026/27, the latest published. It ranks #65 in the Financial Times Masters in Management 2025 table. A GMAT or GRE is required (typically GMAT Focus 515 (or 550 on the older version) / GRE equivalent; waived for holders of an AACSB- or EQUIS-accredited bachelor's).
- Location
- Maastricht, Netherlands
- Length
- 12 months
- Credits
- 60 ECTS
- Tuition
- €2,694/year (EU/EEA) · €21,500/year (non-EU/EEA) — 2026/27, the latest published
- FT rank (2025)
- #65
- Test policy
- GMAT/GRE required (typical GMAT Focus 515 (or 550 on the older version) / GRE equivalent; waived for holders of an AACSB- or EQUIS-accredited bachelor's)
- Taught in
- English
- Salary (FT 2025, ~3 yrs out)
- $81k
- Employment (FT 2025, 3 months out)
- 100%
Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics (SBE) places its MSc International Business 65th worldwide in the Financial Times Masters in Management 2025 — #1 in the Netherlands and #10 globally for value for money.¹ The one-year, English-taught master reports a 100% employment rate at three months and an FT weighted three-year salary of about US$81,000.
Overview
Founded in 1976, Maastricht is the Netherlands’ most international university, and SBE holds triple-crown accreditation (AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA).¹ The MSc International Business is its flagship management master — a one-year, 60-ECTS degree offered as an umbrella with around a dozen specialisations (strategy and innovation, supply-chain management, corporate finance, marketing, entrepreneurship and more).¹ Its defining feature is Problem-Based Learning (PBL), Maastricht’s small-group, case-driven teaching model.
For a wider view of whether the credential fits your goals, see our guide on whether a MiM is worth it in 2026.
Curriculum & Structure
The programme runs over a single intensive year: a core in international business and the chosen specialisation, taught almost entirely through PBL tutorials rather than lectures, culminating in a master’s thesis.¹ Students pick a specialisation track on application, tailoring the degree toward finance, strategy, marketing, supply chain or entrepreneurship. The compact one-year structure and Maastricht’s border location — at the meeting point of the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany — give the cohort a strongly European, applied character.
Application & Deadlines
There are September and February starts, with deadlines that differ by nationality: 1 May (non-EU/EEA) and 1 June (EU/EEA) for September, and 1 November / 1 December for February.¹ A GMAT or GRE is required unless exempt — and holders of an AACSB- or EQUIS-accredited bachelor’s are waived. See how to build a MiM profile for application guidance.
Tuition & Funding
Tuition splits sharply by nationality.² EU/EEA students pay the Dutch statutory fee of about €2,694 for 2026/27; non-EU/EEA students pay the institutional rate of roughly €21,500 a year. Because the master is one year long, that single year is the full cost — which is why the programme ranks #10 worldwide for value for money for its low-fee EU cohort. Non-EU applicants should budget for the institutional rate and review the university’s scholarship options.
One thing to be clear about before you budget: these are the latest rates Maastricht publishes, not the ones a September-2027 starter will pay. Read at source on 3 September 2026, the programme’s fee page carries 2025/26 and 2026/27 only — €2,601 / €21,400 and then €2,694 / €21,500 — with no 2027/28 schedule.² The two published years are about 3.6% and 0.5% apart, so the EU/EEA figure is the one that moves; the institutional rate has been close to flat.
Career Outcomes
The Financial Times 2025 weighted three-year salary is approximately US$81,000, measured three years after graduation, against a 100% employment rate at three months.¹ Maastricht does not publish its own salary or named-employer report for the programme, so the FT data are the cross-school benchmark — but the perfect three-month employment figure and the #10 value-for-money rank both point to strong, efficient graduate outcomes. For early-career context, see our career learnings from a MiM.
Campus & Reputation
Maastricht’s international orientation, English-language teaching and PBL model have made it a magnet for mobile European students, and its location offers access to employers across the Dutch, Belgian and German job markets. As the Netherlands’ top-ranked MiM and a triple-crown school, the MSc International Business pairs a globally respected brand with standout value. For how a MiM compares with an MBA, see our piece on MiM versus MBA.
Frequently asked questions
Where does Maastricht University rank for the Master in Management?
How much does the Maastricht MSc International Business cost?
Do you need the GMAT for the Maastricht MSc International Business?
When are the Maastricht MSc International Business deadlines?
What is Problem-Based Learning at Maastricht?
Sources
- FT Masters in Management 2025 — SBE #1 Netherlands, names the MSc International Business maastrichtuniversity.nl ↗ — Maastricht University (retrieved Jun 2026)
- MSc International Business — tuition fees (statutory & institutional). Re-read at source 2026-09-03 and the figures confirmed exactly: academic year 2025/26 statutory €2,601 and institutional €21,400; academic year 2026/27 statutory €2,694 and institutional €21,500; part-time not applicable in either year. INTAKE LABEL CHECKED: those are the only two years published — there is NO 2027/28 schedule — so 2026/27 is the latest Maastricht publishes and it prices the year before the intake this profile's rounds admit to. The stored non-EU figure was carried as ~€21,500 and is exactly €21,500, so the approximation has been dropped. ROUTE NOTE: this page renders navigation-only to WebFetch (the standing JS-gated negative recorded for Maastricht); a browser-UA curl returns the full 590 KB document with the fee table in the source, which is how it was read maastrichtuniversity.nl ↗ — Maastricht University (retrieved Sept 2026)
- MSc International Business — application & admission deadlines (re-checked 28 Aug 2026; page covers academic year 2026-2027 only. February 2027 start: Studielink opens "as soon as possible after 1 July 2026"; 1 November 2026 non-EU/EEA; 1 December 2026 EU/EEA or Swiss; 1 January 2027 recommended fee payment; 31 January 2027 all MyApplication tasks. September 2027 dates NOT yet published) maastrichtuniversity.nl ↗ — Maastricht University (retrieved Aug 2026)
- GMAT and GRE tests for application (SBE) — minimum scores & exemptions maastrichtuniversity.nl ↗ — Maastricht University (retrieved Jun 2026)
- Financial Times — Masters in Management 2025 rankings.ft.com ↗ — Financial Times (retrieved Jun 2026)
- Maastricht University — MSc International Business (Strategy and Innovation): admission requirements. INTERVIEW CHECKED 2026-09-03: no interview appears anywhere in the published process. The required-documents list is a grades transcript, a copy of the diploma if obtained, a CV, a motivation letter of "about 1 or 2 pages" giving "good arguments for why you want to do this master's programme at Maastricht University", a separate description of every statistics course taken in the bachelor, a passport photo and ID. Read from the raw HTML with a browser user agent — WebFetch renders this page navigation-only, which is the standing Maastricht blocker recorded in the queue, and the browser-UA route clears it maastrichtuniversity.nl ↗ — Maastricht University (retrieved Sept 2026)
- Maastricht University — English language requirement SBE. ENGLISH EVIDENCE ATTEMPTED 2026-09-06 (P33c, Dutch leg) and RECORDED AS A NEGATIVE, with the family named rather than guessed. The page opens with a browser user agent (HTTP 200; the central /support/your-studies-begin/admission-registration/language-requirements path 403s to both WebFetch and browser-UA curl), but everything it opens with is this, verbatim and in full: 'Since this (pre-)master's programme is taught in English, you must have a thorough verbal and written command of English. We accept TOEFL and IELTS tests as proof of your English proficiency. Please note that you have to prepare and register for these exams yourself. Answer the questions below to find out if you meet the language requirements*' with the footnote '*only for SBE (pre-)master's programmes'. The rules themselves sit behind that questionnaire and are assembled in the browser — no thresholds, no country list, no medium-of-instruction clause and no exemption text is server-rendered anywhere on the page. This is the INTERACTIVE FORM APP family already recorded for KU Leuven's tuition-fee application-windows lookup, not the WAF family and not a moved URL. So Maastricht is the one Dutch school in this catalogue whose English exemption rule this site has NOT read, and nothing about it is asserted here. Aggregator summaries of a Board-of-Admissions medium-of-instruction discretion exist; none of them is the school, and none is used maastrichtuniversity.nl ↗ — Maastricht University (retrieved Sept 2026)