The Maastricht Center for Transatlantic Studies (MCTS) was conceived in 1995 by representatives of twelve institutions across the United States, Mexico, and Europe, and offered its first teaching program in Spring, 1998. Its goal has been to provide a unique educational program based on the interactive relationship between peoples and cultures on both sides of the Atlantic. It is the first institution devoted to such a mission: no other study-abroad program offers such an opportunity for an international educational body to gather in one location to explore common problems through a variety of teaching disciplines. At a time when education and global perspectives are high on public and governmental agendas, the MCTS has already begun to attract national and international attention because of its unique mission and innovation.

In the Spring of 2008, ten years after offering its first teaching program, the MCTS announced a new partnership with the Roosevelt Academy, an International Honors College of Utrecht University, in Middelburg, Zeeland, the Netherlands. With the new partnership comes both a change in venue--to Middelburg from Maastricht--and a new name: the Middelburg Center for Transatlantic Studies.