Professor van Rooijen has held visiting and honorary appointments at universities globally in his academic field (sustainable urbanisation) and has published widely on international education and university management. He is actively involved in various international organisations. He is the long serving co-chairman of the World Association for Co-operative and work Integrated learning (https://waceinc.org/) and the former President of the Compostela Group of Universities from 2008-2016. (https://web.gcompostela.org/). He holds various international awards including the Constance Meldrum prize for Vision and Leadership (EAIE 2012) and the Emblema Ouro or Golden Insignia of the Universidad Santiago de Compostela (2014).

Since the mid-90s Prof dr Maurits van Rooijen has served on the executive of the European Access Network (EAN), which is currently based in Belgium and is the only global organisation wholly dedicated to advancing access and widening participation to higher education.

Professor Maurits van Rooijen is Group Rector and Chief Academic Officer of Global University Systems (GUS). In addition to this role, on 1st September 2019, Professor van Rooijen was appointed as Rector of the University of Europe for Applied Sciences. He is also Chairman of IBAT College Dublin and GISMA Germany.