First Double Degrees UCM and UCF
Two students recently received the very first Double Degrees from University College Maastricht (UCM) and University College Freiburg (UCF). The two colleges have been collaborating intensively for a number of years, and they are the first European Liberal Arts Colleges to offer a Double Degree programme. Julia Wertheim from UCF and Arno Angerer from UCM will respectively continue on to a fast-track PhD in Freiburg and a master's in Knowledge Engineering & Data Science in Maastricht.
To obtain a double degree, UCM students have to spend a year in Freiburg, while Freiburg's students spend a year in Maastricht. The programme offers students many benefits: it allows them to select courses from the course catalogue of both colleges, Maastricht students can study for an additional year, and they will obtain a German diploma while students from Freiburg will get a Dutch one. This simplifies the transfer to a master's programme in the other country, it also gives them easier access to the labour market there.
University College Freiburg is the first Liberal Arts & Sciences programme at a major German research university. UCM was actively involved in the creation of the programme and the current academic director, Ursula Glunk, is a former UM employee. Students and staff visit each other every year and the two colleges organise joint conferences. The Double Degree programme is the crown on this intensive collaboration.