The guidances have been written by AZSAB members and it covers all necessary information and tips for incoming students
Maastricht
By:Turgut Taghizade
This guide is meant to help you settle into life in Maastricht, as well as life at Maastricht University. It is designed mostly with links to cover the most important aspects of student life from general tips over organizational necessities every student must go through.
Maastricht is the capital of the Limburg region, bordering Belgium and Germany. Thus, the location allows you to travel quickly to several countries within a relatively short time.
Registration
Maastricht University (UM) and the municipality of Maastricht organize free registration sessions in August, September and February at the Student Services Centre (SSC). If you arrive to Maastricht in a different month than August, September or February, please arrange your registration at the municipality of Maastricht.
Bank account
As you already may know, in order to get admission from the university and apply for a visa, you must transfer your living fee to the University’s bank account. Therefore, right after your arrival here, one of the first things is to open a Dutch bank account and get this fee transferred back to your Dutch account. There are so many banks here. However, our university recommends ING Bank which does not require any fee and you can simply approach there with mere admission letter.
Note: In the Netherlands, most of the places do not accept a Visa/Visa Electron cards.
Public transport
 
In Maastrciht, you will almost always be able to reach your destination by bicycle. It is better to buy second hand bikes through Facebook groups from previous year students which are so much cheaper than used bikes in shops. Since you’re dealing with second hand bikes from a person you don’t know, you’re buying the bike in good faith and it could be stolen. Ask the seller to write and sign a document stating he is the rightful owner of the bike, the serial number of the bike, the date, location and price you bought the bike for. This way you cover yourself for any legal liability in the event you bought a stolen bike in good faith.
If you’re on a limited budget but are willing to do a little work in exchange for a bike, try the Fietsbank Maastricht. This is a foundation by volunteers who dedicate themselves to making bikes and bike repairs available for people on a limited income.
 
Facebook Pages for used bikes:
Facebook Groups for second-hand goods:
If you want to travel by bus, tram, metro or train, It is better to acquire an OV-chip card.
  1. The OV card can be purchased anonymously at all the metro stations which costs only €7.50 and can be used across the Netherlands. Therefore, you will need to load it with money to use for travel.
  2. Or you can buy a personalised card (with photo) online making it possible to claim different discounts like a 40% discount on train travel. This discount is available upon a yearly payment of 50 Euros, and only applies to using the train between 9:00 and 16:00 and 18:30 – 6:30 the next morning (“off peak hours”), and on the weekend. (It makes sense to get this discount if you use the train at least once or twice a month).
When using the train, you need to have a minimum balance of €20 both on your “personal” and “anonymous” OV-Chipkaart.
As for the public transport, do not forget to check in and check out when you enter and leave whichever means of transportation you use. When you check in €4 is automatically taken off and when you check out the correct amount according to distance is deducted, however if you do not check out the full amount of €4 will be deducted.
Make sure your card is loaded before entering a tram or you will have to buy a paper ticket from the conductor for €3 for an hour of unlimited travel.
If you need to go from A to B on a weekend night, Arriva is providing night buses for a selection of routes on Friday and Saturday night. These routes include lines 1, 4, 5, 6 & 50. Check out the timetable for detailed information.
Accomodation
In the Netherlands, students usually do not live on campus but have their own room/apartment/studio. Finding good, affordable accommodation can be a problem here. Make sure you start looking for a place as soon as you have officially received your admission.
Accommodation can range from as cheap as €250 per month to as expensive as €800 per month. Prices vary as there are public and private housing providers. Before you accept a room, please check which bills (e.g. gas, electricity, internet, TV) are included in your rent.
There are various options for accommodation such as Campus; Private dorms in the city; Studios; Shared apartments with other flatmates and so forth.
If you want to look for accommodation yourself, the websites and facebook groups at the bottom of the page might be useful.
Place to study
There are 2 very big libraries of the university: the Inner City Library for the faculties in the centre and the other one is Randwyck Library (Medicine Faculty). You are free to use both of them!
Additionally, there are some other places to study such as Tapijn Learning Spaces, Bonnefanten Learning Spaces, University Sports Centre Learning Spaces, LINK Learning Spaces
You can see more by clicking on this link.
Apart from these, you can also use the Centre Céramique (Public Library) located at Wyck.
Useful applications
  1. Ricoh myPrint‏‏: Brings online printing functionality to your phone;
  2. Buienradar: Check our rain radar and graph before you leave;
  3. 9292 or NS Reisplanner Xtra: Travel planners for all public transports;
  4. GoEuro Train Bus Flight: Find and book your ideal train, bus or flight across Europe;
  5. ING Bankieren: Manage your banking affairs;
  6. Microsoft Outlook: Check your university emails in one convenient spot.
  7. MyLebara Top-up: If you use Lebara sim card) Manage your account any time, anywhere.
Note: In case you are using an iPhone that does not recognise the above stated apps, then create a new Apple ID and choose the Netherlands among countries.
After your education in the netherlands, you shall follow the certain rules
In case you plan to work the guides below might be interesting for you
Take a look at the following websites and search for rent there!
Facebook pages
Unfortunately, these pages are also the places scammers target the most. Be careful of anything that looks too good to be true. Most student houses will want to meet you first, but you should always be able to look around a place or at least insist on a skype call before signing or paying the deposit. A contract should always be signed before paying the deposit, and if you’re ever asked to transfer money to a bank account with an IBAN that doesn’t begin with NL then beware.