Maastricht University (Universiteit Maastricht) is a public research university located in Maastricht, the capital of the province of Limburg in the southern Netherlands. It is one of the youngest universities in the country and is known for a distinctive teaching model and a strongly international character.

The university was formally established in 1976, having begun teaching in 1974, initially to expand medical education in the Netherlands. From that origin it has developed into a broad-based institution organised into six faculties that together span fields including health, medicine and life sciences, psychology and neuroscience, business and economics, law, arts and social sciences, and science and engineering. As of 2023 it enrolled close to 23,000 students, and a majority of them, around 59 percent, came from outside the Netherlands, making it one of the more internationally oriented universities in the country.

Maastricht University is particularly associated with problem-based learning, a student-centred approach in which small groups work through real-world problems rather than relying primarily on lectures. The university applies this method across its programmes and treats it as a defining feature of its education. Reflecting the same international focus, many bachelor's programmes and most master's and doctoral programmes are taught in English, drawing students and academic staff from a wide range of countries. The institution's position near the Belgian and German borders, in the Meuse-Rhine region, further reinforces its cross-border profile. Taken together, its comparatively recent founding, its problem-based pedagogy, and its English-language, international orientation distinguish Maastricht University within the Dutch higher-education system.