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This is the story of how UM's masks turned me into a (very short-time) stalker. The first time I saw her, she was sitting a few rows away from me on the train that I always take when I go home from university. Instead of reading my Spanish book on Civil Rights, I got addicted to a podcast and spent the 15-minute train ride listening to Anush...

WED 14 APRIL - Unsure whether education on campus can start on April 26 It is not yet certain that the university will be able to partially open its doors on April 26, as previously announced by the government. Everything depends on the number of corona infections (these are still increasing at the moment), the condition in the hospitals...

My toddler recently learned the word cracker. Whenever he feels hungry (or even when he doesn’t), he proudly demands for one. The genuine enthusiasm that he displays upon receiving a relatively bland cracker (which I’ve tried just to be sure) is something that baffles me. Firmly gripping the cracker, he celebrates as if he’s just ...

Academics are in the business of ideas. We are not making widgets on the factory floor or baking cakes. We are fashioning and shaping ideas that unveil truths about the world. Then, we share those ideas to different audiences. First of all to students, who are normally receptive. They came to Maastricht University precisely to learn and because the...

In our most recent video call my parents’ suburb was full of smoke. Firefighters were burning off dry debris to prevent it from becoming fuel for late summer lightening fires. When I grew up in Tasmania, we would stay by our home when the flames approached, dousing the house with water. I remember firefighters dragging huge hoses into our ...

On March 3rd, Sarah Everard was kidnapped and murdered on her way home, 48-year-old police officer Wayne Couzens has been charged with her murder. Her death sparked many protests around the world and led to new discussions about male violence against women. The reason why so many people are angry after the killing of Sarah Everard is, because he...

French writer Marcel Proust's madeleine snack dipped in tea sent him on the reverie of memory that became the seven volumes of In Search Of Lost Time. For a French writer, an unassuming cookie with scalloped edges. For me, hydrocarbon particles.  I’m 20 years old, studying in Bogotá, Colombia, whose avenidas are choked with aging ...

"I donated blood in the Netherlands and now I live here." With this sophisticated sentence, spoken in Spanish, I approached a big white bus parked in the middle of one of the main squares of Madrid (and one of my favourites), Puerta del Sol (or 'Sol' like most people call it). I don't know whether it was the catchphrase printe...

The past weeks my two year-old son has had a nasty cold, which resulted in many sleepless nights—for all of us. One evening, I was trying to help him fall asleep. Nothing I did was working, and he was exhausted. I, too, felt exhausted. I also felt frustrated. Not at my son per se. No, it was a more overarching frustration about the lack of co...

'Have you had Corona yet?', my housemate's friend's friend asked me as we were sitting in a bar, 'No? Oh, don't worry, you'll get it soon.' As if I was ever worried about not getting Covid. I'm now overwhelmed with an alternate universe in which Corona doesn't seem to exist, or at least doesn't seem to...

I sometimes find myself caught in the middle of two feuding fractions: students and teachers. There has always been some disconnect between the two sides and perhaps you can empathize with one of them. From the students’ perspective, some teachers just don’t care. They don’t answer emails, don’t offer proper guidance, and de...

It all started a couple of weeks ago with a heated discussion between a Maastricht PhD candidate and a UM professor on LinkedIn. The subject: when may you call yourself a real scientist? If you spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week working in your field and already have a considerable number of publications to your name? The view of professor Har...

After Amanda Gorman’s evocative poetry reading at Joe Biden’s inauguration on the 20th of January, several friends who know that poetry is woven into the fabric of my life wrote to me about how moved they were by her words. Poetry is powerful. Verse can heal an agitated heart. Reconciling stanzas can calm and douse fiery ...

I take a sip of Glühwein, trying to recover from today's online debate. And I don't add the 'online' to remind everyone of the lockdown we're still (again?) in - no one needs a reminder of that. Instead, I emphasize the online nature of the debate because that's the culprit that turned my passionate, convincing arguments int...

Just before Christmas the Dutch Research Council announced that there would be no extension of the January deadline for their Dutch Research Agenda funding scheme. Damn. Who does not like an extension? This extension was especially desired by many applicants recently thrust into the sleep-destroying care-work balance of the second total lockdown. A...

The nightmare called 2020 is over and we survived. What a year! I don't know about you, but I think the two things I talked and thought about the most in the past year are Trump and COVID-19. No day passed without me glued to my news app anxiously looking for the next headline, the next crazy Trump tweet or new corona numbers. 2021 seemed...

When the lockdown was announced halfway through March 2020 because of COVID-19, it wasn’t just education that went online, from one day to the next, but also the exams. Tineke de Beaumont, functional manager of digital exams at Maastricht University, really had to pull out all the stops. She did that so well that she can now pick up one of th...

It's the magic of all new years to create an atmosphere of hope and ambition. A belief that everything will change for the better, that to-do lists will finally be finished and that dreams will come true. 2021 specifically is promising more than any year before it. And so I lie in bed, hitting the snooze button again and again just to hold on a...

At first, it looked like a cyberattack against UM would give 2020 its basic disastrous shape. For most of the world, the coronavirus served that purpose. Yet for me and my colleagues at IDS (Institute for Data Science), the year was colored by a tragedy of our own.  During the fall of 2019, I worked on a grant with a postdoctoral researcher...

His gaze against the sweeping of the bars has grown so weary, it can hold no more. To him, there seem to be a thousand bars and back behind those thousand bars no world. ~ The Panther, Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Stanley Appelbaum   I’ve always had an unexplainable love for Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem The Pant...

Since the start of the pandemic, the number of voice messages I have made and received has increased substantially. They have helped me to keep in touch with family, friends, and colleagues, despite being physically distanced from one another. Moreover, after sitting behind the computer all day, the last thing I want to do is send emails and text m...

According to the world-renowned relationship psychotherapist, Esther Perel, we are seeking from our romantic partner today what “an entire village” once used to provide: We want reliability and comfort, but also adventure and transcendence. This seemingly conflicting expectations of romance is creating dissatisfaction and unfulfilled de...

Some (potential) students from outside the European Union acquire their secondary school diploma with flying colours, but don’t have quite the qualifications needed for a study programme at Maastricht University. For those who nevertheless want to do so, there is the Foundation Programme. In this one-year study programme, participants are pre...

The more that I advance on this life journey, the more that I have become interested in decision making. Why do we do the things that we do and how do we make decisions? Why does it seem that we often make irrational choices and engage in risky behavior?   One book that gave me insights into my own decision making was Michael Lewis’ b...

Does it feel to you like there was something particularly poignant about autumn this year? Was the light different, almost phosphorescent? Or was it just a soothing contrast to my demanding computer screen? And the leaves, so many of them! Falling through the air, thrown back up again in bundles released from four-year-olds’ fingers. I did th...

“You averaged 11 hours, 36 minutes of screen time per day last week”, is the first thing my Ipad tells me on a Monday morning. It is 9:58 am and I've been trying to find the Zoom link to my 10 a.m class for the last fifteen minutes. My phone buzzes, thirty new Whatsapp messages and a new message from my tutorial group: “Can...

Three days before I was set to leave for Germany to spend exam week at my parent's place and visit friends during UCM's reflection week, the one news came that I'd been dreading for days: Limburg, as one of the last Dutch provinces, was finally defined as a risk area by the German authorities. Luckily, I could still go. But it did mean ...

When I graduated from high school, some years ago, I was certain about my future. In the luxury position to have a Dutch state scholarship, I chose to study economics in Maastricht and live there as well. My teachers were very surprised that I went to this small young university, but I never regretted my choice. Now I support my oldest child in ...

She has a temporary job at Maastricht University’s EDLAB. To be more precise: she is involved in the premium project in which the Italian Anna Marino (23) participated last year as a master’s student of European Studies. Premium is meant for talented and motivated students who get to work on queries that businesses, NGOs or other bodies...

A day before starting her new job, she defended her master’s thesis. It was graded with an 8.5. Armed with her brand-new degree in Global Supply Chain Management and Change, Monika Koritarova (25) was ready to embark on the Supply Chain Talent Program of high-tech company ASML in Veldhoven, North Brabant. She will work as a project coordinato...

"What are you doing? Studying? Playing games?" With these words, the waitress placed the beer next to my closed computer at the cafe I had been spending my afternoon. Why? Well, let me tell you the tale of broken wifi at a student house in the middle of a COVID-19-proof university. It all started when the construction workers next d...

Give every student five tacks and a jar during a tutorial group meeting. Each time someone says something, a tack disappears into his or her jar. After five times, they are out of speaking time. “This gives quiet students the opportunity to also contribute to the discussion. The chatty students have no tacks left after twenty minutes,” ...

In my youth, I obediently followed the rules and repeated what I was taught. I was a pet to authority, and would reject that cage if I was given another chance. Education put me in classrooms, made me ask permission before speaking, and made me compete with my friends to see who could produce the best low-grade bureaucratic output. Deviation was...

In my very first column for Observant, I wrote about the end of history illusion (by psychologist Daniel Gilbert and others) showing that, no matter what age, we think that we have finally become the person we ‘truly’ are, and are no longer going to change. I’ve been thinking a lot about the end of history illusion these days, bec...

She wrote her final thesis on euthanasia and dementia. In it, she focussed on the Dutch case of a geriatrician who had ended the life of a patient suffering from dementia. The woman had signed a declaration when she was able to give informed consent. Nevertheless, the doctor was charged by the public prosecutor, after the dossier had been presented...

Northeastern University in Boston recently dismissed 11 first-year students who were watching TV together in a dorm room. These students allegedly violated the university’s social distancing rules, which they were repeatedly informed of and even signed contracts promising their compliance. The students had moved in only a few days prior, but ...

Look, I Zoom in And I Zoom out But can I really focus? It all started last March on Twitter with these four lines of poetry by Paul Stephenson, assistant professor of Political Science and poet. Sally Wyatt, professor Digital Cultures and since September a member of the Faculty Board of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, replied t...

“Hello everyone, may I have your attention please,” student steward Artur Klatka asks a (COVID-19) filled lecture hall in the new UM building on the Paul Henri Spaaklaan. “I could see from outside that you were standing too close to each other. Could you please maintain the one-and-a-half-metre distance? Thank you very much. If yo...

"I hope I'm not the only one here today." I said it with a grin. Sometimes you only realize the irony of a situation in retrospect. This is one of those times. Last Wednesday morning, I immediately knew how I had to follow the designated route to get to my tutorial room. Though this was not, as one might assume, because I was so ex...

There’s a reservation system, stickers and signs galore, tape everywhere, a one-way walking system, and sanitiser can be found every few metres. Everything takes a little longer and requires a little more preparation than usual, but you can get a corona-proof workout in at UM Sports. The showers are not yet available. The new house rules a...

The number of students who signed up with a student association has risen considerably this year compared to last year. Nationally, the number has grown more than fifty per cent, especially Eindhoven (79 per cent), Utrecht and Groningen (66 per cent) had a lot of new first-year students. The Maastricht associations easily exceed those percentages b...

With one arm in a cast, UCM student Arthur Bribosia (23) accepted the annual Student Award last Monday. A few days earlier, when he heard that his movement Students for Climate had won the award, the Belgian student was overjoyed, climbed a tree, fell out of it and broke his arm. Rector Rianne Letschert gave him a bouquet of flowers, a little statu...

Germs have been getting bad press lately. I’ve never been one to like them myself. As a habitual germaphobe, I have been able to navigate my way through FASoS buildings without touching handles for years. Yes, I am one of those weirdos who opens doors with elbows or sleeves. I love electronic openings. And oh, the sound of automatic hand clea...

Surrounded by piles of clothes and half-built furniture, I carefully sit on the blanket I placed on my mattress (I still have to wash the bedsheets) and look out of the window. The street seems suddenly quiet. No more big cars with boedelbakken (trailers) pull up the sidewalk, unloading box after box. No more students with backpacks bigger than the...

Pharmacologist and UM Professor Mark Post, who created the cultured beef hamburger, is one of the fifty most important thinkers of our time, according to British general-interest magazine Prospect Magazine. The list of intellectuals was recently published on its website.  Post: “I was completely surprised. I didn’...

Eindhoven, Nijmegen, Maastricht. You can study Biomedical Sciences in all three cities, but there is a restricted entry in Nijmegen and the study programme in Eindhoven is fairly technical. So, Robin Beurskens (19) registered in Maastricht at the last minute. “Wonderful city too. And not too far from Venlo, where I live. About fifty minute...

Somewhere between the University Library and the City Park, the INKOM city walk participants take a wrong turn. They go left onto Begijnenstraat instead of continuing straight ahead to the checkpoint in the park. The students are almost at Café Sjiek when they realise their mistake. They turn back and go through Helpoort gate on their way to the pa...

Giovanni Bava was dropped off in Maastricht by his parents and brother to study Economics & Business Economics. All the way from Italy by car. “My brother is going to study in Canada, so this was like a last family trip.” Initially, it was a little scary to be left behind here by myself, but after the first meeting with people from ...

Conor Johnston (20) is one of the first-year students who was worked hard during UM Sports Inkom workout on Wednesday morning. “I didn’t expect it to be that intense. But it was a good exercise.” He is pretty certain that he will be joining the sports centre. “I want to join the tennis club and the rugby team.” Especia...

“I grew up in Afghanistan, but have lived in the Netherlands for five years now,” says Haroon Rezaie (21), first-year student of European Studies. “I really want to know more about the place where I live and where my future lies, that is why I chose European Studies. I am really looking forward to discovering more about European h...

‘Learn to cook like a real Maastricht resident.’ That’s the promising description of the virtual event Meals of Maastricht, part of the Inkom 2020. It’s Wednesday August 19, 6 pm, and I‘m standing in my kitchen in Germany. I am very hungry and a bit disappointed. When I read the description, I imagined some sor...

The workout was fully COVID-proof. At the entrance to the sports hall, people were asked to scan a QR code and fill in a list of questions on their phone. If their screen turned green, they were allowed inside. The entire hall was being used so that participants had enough space to keep their distance from each other. Ten yellow sports cones had be...

Callie Mak (18) from Singapore moved from Singapore to Spain with her parents so that she could do her A levels. This academic year she will start at the Maastricht Science Programme. “I wanted to move to a new place and do a study programme that offers a lot of freedom to choose your own set of subjects.” In addition to Maastricht, she...

Will I or will I not go to Maastricht during the Inkom?’ Derck Dolmans (20) asked himself a couple of weeks ago. He opted for a combination. “I will stay at home the first three days, most of the programme is online, and I will attend the last two days. That is when I will meet some people from my group.” At the moment, they us...

Cedric Pots (18) grew up in Scharn, so yes, it is logical that he is going study at Maastricht University. But in Pots’ case, things are a little different. From the time he was in fourth year of secondary school, Pots has known that he wants to study Econometrics – or Economics at any rate – so he looked into varies studies of th...

“Could you please keep one and a half metres’ distance?” The new students at the entrance to the information market at Tapijn take a few steps to the side. “Thank you very much,” says the senior-year student, wearing an Inkom sports shirt. It is Inkom week. But the city is unusually quiet, no senior-year students pr...

You’ve arrived in Maastricht and everything is new: different people from all around the world (aka. Germany), a different study program, and hopefully finally doing what you're passionate about. Now, what golden tip do you need in order to succeed? Considering myself a fairly experienced student by now after 3 years of studying both i...

WED 19 AUG - In the MVV stadium, cantus band Groots met een valse G tries to get the atmosphere of a cantus through the screen into the living room of the Maastricht students. The cantus bundle is a PDF this year, the music and drink party itself can be followed via a live stream. - Every morning, students gather at the Sports C...

A few days before the introduction week Inkom kicks off, eighteen-year-old Renée Moers is still in Luxembourg, on a campsite. “I’m taking a little break with friends.” She was initially scheduled to fly to Alicante with her mother after her central exams and would spend another ten days in Italy with her boyfriend t...

They have one goal, one boat, one team. For months, they were up before dawn so they could train, drank no alcohol, watched what they ate, skipped going to parties, and went to bed on time. Then on 12 March, there were the words by minister Bruno Bruins during the COVID-19 press conference: “All events with more than a hundred people have bee...

International Business alumnus Arjan Tiessen This interview with wine importer Arjan Tiessen (37) has been about a year and a half in the making. It all started when Arjan, who lives in Tanzania, replied to my request for an interview on Facebook Messenger. “I’d love to, man! That article from sixteen years ago, I still think about i...

Albert Vijghen and Jim Bemelen studied Econometrics together at Maastricht University, after which they both became teachers. Vijghen teaches at the School of Business and Economics (SBE) and Bemelen at Zuyd University of Applied Sciences. In addition to their jobs, they hold voluntary “quarantine sessions” with a small group of SB...

Laugh, don’t start speaking until you are in the right position, breathe calmly and from your abdomen, speak with a low voice, do not stand too close to the wall, make contact with the audience and very importantly: do not play-act. This is a selection of the presentation tips by actor Niels Lemmens. At the end of January, he gave one of the ...

I have a confession to make: I used to have an eating disorder. Although my family and friends know this about me, after starting my PhD at Maastricht University in 2011, I told only a few colleagues about my history. This is striking, considering I work in the Eating Disorders Research Group. I’ve always feared that colleagues would ju...

She had been looking forward to it all year: spring, the moment when she would only have to write her thesis and would be free to explore the Netherlands. But two weeks before her last exam, the country went into lockdown. Now, master’s student of Arts and Heritage Katharina Eiben is exploring her current place of residence: Maastricht. &ldqu...

Zwarte Piet is racist, is now the official view of Maastricht University. On 10 June, prompted by the worldwide demonstrations against racism, the Executive Board issued a statement in which it emphasises the “diverse and inclusive” nature of the UM. “We are proud of our students and staff who stand up, who speak out against racis...

In March, master’s student of Strategic Marketing Belén Sánchez Ortigosa was faced with a difficult dilemma: should she get on a plane to Madrid to be with her family, or stay in Maastricht during the lockdown? She chose the second option. “I had to act very quickly. More and more flights were getting cancelled. I think I made the right...

Days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic, governments around the world have enforced social isolation measurements to stop the spread of the virus. While the severity of the virus on human beings was still unknown, governments acted swift and with determination claiming that they’d rather “be safe than...

Sabine Kemper, master’s student of Healthcare Policy, Innovation and Management, was supposed to be doing a research internship at the hospital right now. It would have been the perfect opportunity for her to gain practical experience. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, her internship was cancelled. “This was my only opportunity to do an ...

Work placement, thesis, study, politics. These are just a few of the things that keep Jonathan Felix, master’s student of Law and Labour, busy at the moment. Even during the pandemic, he has his hands full. “Three days a week, I do a distance research placement at Zuyd Hogeschool. I am taking two subjects for my master’s and I wor...

Podcasts are extremely popular and are shooting up all over the place. News, sports, food and unsolved murders: you name it and there is a podcast about it. About almost everything, thought Katinka van Kan (28) from Maastricht, who is an consciousness coach focussing mainly on students. Student life was the subject that was missing. Van Kan fi...

Kennedy d’Abreu de Paulo is a master’s student of Biomedical Sciences, specialising in neuromodulation. “Neuromodulation is about making adjustments to the brain or nervous system, for example through deep brain stimulation, where electrodes are implanted in the brain.” d’Abreu de Paulo talks about it with a lot of ...

At the School of Business and Economics, it is keeping to the right as much as possible in the corridors and sometimes it is better to look to the right as well. Certainly if you are passing the toilets near the university restaurant on your way to the exit. The doors there, which have been equipped with a stick-on magnet so that you don’t ha...

Months ago, I wrote a paean of praise for the Mensa Canteen here in Freiburg. Needless to say, I was shaken to my core when I heard that its doors shut weeks ago due to the ongoing Corona pandemic, and a tear still manages to escape from my eye when I think about the fact that it remains closed. But where a door closes, a window opens. And now, the...

“’Not a penny is to go to Italy’, the Dutch minister said. And now I have to talk to you? You’ve got to be joking!”, shouts a restaurant owner in the north Italian Vittorio Veneto to the Dutch journalist from Nieuwsuur. A number of business owners are protesting for solidarity and support from the Italian government, b...

Strawberries are red, the sky is blue, Sadly no visitors, but people are thinking of you! With these types of cheerful poems and other uplifting messages, the students from the ‘Maastricht Chamber of Associations’ (Circumflex, Tragos and Koko) are trying to raise the spirits of the elderly in Envida care homes. The messages are...

What exactly happened during the cyberhack last December? Next Wednesday, UM will once again disclose what happened in the TV programme De Kennis van Nu (The Knowledge of Now). The research institute for water technology Wetsus from Leeuwarden, which was hacked after Maastricht and got help from UM, will do the same. They both paid ransom: the UM a...

It almost seems impossible to have a ‘perfect’ day in these times of frustration, restrictions and isolation. In a way, it even seems wrong. But the truth is, the Corona Virus is no longer the first topic I talk about to friends when I ‘see’ them. A close second, that’s for sure, but the focus seems to have shifted fro...

Although Britt Schuurman began her master’s degree in Medicine in March, she has yet to do any clinical rotations. She was supposed to be doing a rotation in the Department of Surgery at the Laurentius Hospital in Roermond right now. “I was looking forward to doing clinical rotations, but I understand why I have to wait. I’m OK wi...

That a train stopped at the seemingly abandoned train station Höxter-Lüchtringen surprised me even as I entered it to start my 6-hour long journey back to Freiburg. And not only because this was the first time that I was surrounded by anything other than the four walls I spent my self-quarantine in. I was very well prepared for this life as a on...

Downheartedness and self-pity. Those are the prevailing emotions in the Vluggen household at the moment. The reason is that this is the week when we invariably made our way to the Côte d’Azur for the annual highlight on a film lover’s calendar: the Cannes Film Festival. I would then subsequently have complained for the next ten days abo...

The Election Magazine can only be viewed online this year. Normally, the magazine goes along with the paper Observant two weeks before the university elections, this year from May 25-28. Because Observant is not published due to the Corona crisis, the Election Magazine is also digital. The candidates for the Faculty Councils, Univ...

My mother calls, worried. She has seen on the news that Americans are stockpiling guns and that violence is on the rise. Living in a suburb of New York, I’ve witnessed the spread of Covid-19 firsthand. Of course, gun stockpiling doesn’t take place in urban America, but mostly in rural places that you or I would never even consider visit...

It has been a strange academic year for Femke de Haan, a third-year student at University College Maastricht. Last September, she went on exchange to Canada. Soon after her return to the Netherlands in January, Maastricht University closed its doors due to the coronavirus outbreak. “I went from experiencing one new thing after another in Cana...

The bad news is that UM Sports may have to remain closed until September. The good news is that the university sports centre has been offering online workouts for a while now. Observant editors want to stay in shape, too, so we decided to give it a shot. In addition to a number of videos by UM Sports instructors on social media and YouTube, UM S...

Olsi Sokolli is a bachelor’s student of European Studies. His original plan was to go into self-quarantine at home with his family in Altamura, in southern Italy. He had already bought his ticket, but his flight was cancelled at the last minute. “I thought it was a sign.” He decided to stay in Maastricht. He was the only one in...

The plans to reopen were at the ready, but Dutch cinemas will remain closed till June 1. And anyone casting a glance at the release list for the coming months, will see that film distributers also don’t expect cinemas to be up and running fully any time soon. Although there are a number of premieres planned from the beginning of June, most of...

Bernardo Centofanti from Rome is a master’s student of International Business who works as a tutor teaching the course Finance 1.5. Just before the university closed, he moved out of his semi-studio flat and into a student house with five others. They all decided to stay in Maastricht. “I can imagine why people who live alone or don&rsq...

  On the first day of my 14-day quarantine in Germany, a letter from the ministry of health was already waiting for me on the kitchen table. It contained all the things I was allowed to do during the upcoming two weeks and, more importantly, everything I absolutely wasn't if I didn't want to spend my precious pocket money on a big f...

Jeanine Brouwer teaches three courses: a research practical and an academic writing course for psychologists, and a course on Addiction to third-year students of the Faculty of Health, Medicine & Life Sciences. She sometimes feels like her students wake up fifteen minutes before their morning sessions begin (at 8.30 a.m.). She laughs. “I ...

Alexander Carlo teaches Financing Emerging Markets, a second-year course in the bachelor’s programme International Business, as well as Corporate Finance in the master’s programme. Things have been going well so far, he says, although it feels a bit odd to be talking to a screen all day. Some days, he teaches four Zoom tutorials a day. ...

Anja Dekanski works as a tutor at University College Maastricht. This block, she’s teaching a first-year course called Research Methods 2, as well as a course called Strategy & Negotiation for second- and third-year students. “Within a week of the university closing, the block coordinators and us tutors prepared everything to go onl...

Arriving at the airport in Singapore accompanied by 80s radio tunes was surreal, to say the least. I felt like the whole world except for me discovered how to teleport, making airports obsolete and leaving them deserted. Seeing another human being in the departure hall that is usually buzzing with people ready to see their loved ones, enjoy their h...

Last week, Observant ran a story about Hugo Engels, employee at the Language Centre, who was trying to find a French cyclist he’d met while he was out cycling on Easter Sunday. His search didn’t take long. Engels has found his missed connection! A brief recap of the story: Engels and the young woman talked for just a few minutes unti...

Nici Friedman, third-year student at University College Maastricht, still lives in her student house in Maastricht. She went to her parents for Eastern. But she couldn’t go home for a longer period of time even if she wanted to, she jokes. “I have a lot of plants that would probably die if I left. I stayed here because my parents live r...

Friday the 10th of April, 7 am, Singapore. A small group of three headed over to the bus station, wearing face masks and desperately trying not to touch their faces that nowadays seem to start itching as soon as you set foot outside. Fifteen minutes later, the same group arrived in a part of town that they only rarely visit, a part where they stood...

Many were quick to point out that ‘social distancing’ was a poor choice of words, including the President of our university. What we need in times of pandemic is ‘physical distancing’ accompanied by social solidarity. I have seen the latter cleverly described as viral solidarity. This is a nice play on solidarity during the ...

Observant received quite an urgent email this week. Hugo Engels, employee at the Language Centre, is looking for a woman he met while cycling on Easter Sunday. The only thing he knows about her is that she works at Maastricht University. Observant doesn’t have a Missed Connections section, but we’re happy to make an exception. The hi...

It doesn’t look like the cinemas will be reopening their doors any time soon, albeit that market leader Pathé has been working on a plan for ‘one-and-a-half-metre cinemas’. NRC published an article on the subject: only one quarter of the seats will be sold (online), employees will wear ‘attendance vests’ and ...

It might be a callous idea to suggest that we be more grateful during a worldwide pandemic, where people have lost loved ones or are suffering from illnesses themselves. When schools have gone online and daycares, like our borders, have closed. Where hanging out with friends have become a finable offense and the news – both true and fake &nda...

Let’s go on a short time travel journey: the date is February 2020. A time when the Corona outbreak has not reached a global pandemic level yet. I am working slightly stressed but focused towards my master’s degree, screening the job market and sending the first applications for autumn 2020. “Getting there”, I am telling mys...

Monday, the 6th of April - Orchard Road, Singapore It is 3 in the afternoon and Orchard Road is buzzing as if it were the weekend. Not unusual for the number 1 shopping street in Singapore, filled with stores ranging from Dior and Gucci over to H&M and Cotton On. Apart from the handful of people that seem to have ignored the news over the la...

Law student Leonie Frissen is one of the students who live in the building used by Lux ad Mosam, the Christian student association in Maastricht. Although many students have left the city, Frissen’s student house is still quite full. “Eleven people usually live here. There are eight of us here now.” Eight people sheltering in p...

The European Central Bank (ECB) is printing money like crazy in response to the coronavirus. It is creating up to €750 billion to purchase government bonds (to prevent indebted Eurozone states from going bankrupt) and up to €3 trillion to incentivise banks so they lend money to companies and maintain liquidity in the economy. This is arou...

Thierry Bleijswijk, master’s student of Public Policy and Human Development, has been a volunteer with the Netherlands Red Cross for four years. He usually works at music festival Pinkpop or André Rieu concerts, but he’s currently doing volunteer work at the hospital. “We support health care professionals in their work”, say...

Second-year student of Psychology Victoria Ebert has “gone back to her childhood days”, she says via Skype, laughing. She has returned to her father’s vineyard house, where she lived until 2011. “After that, I went to school abroad and lived with my mother in Berlin.” Public life in Germany has been largely shut dow...

We’re all looking forward to the day that we don’t have to live in the constant fear of COVID-19 anymore. The day that our hearts don’t make a jump when our phones ring because we suspect that, in the end, someone we love did get infected with Corona. The day that we can do cartwheels in the local park again - something we didn&rs...

Jasmina Peneva, a research master’s student of Cognitive Neuroscience, travelled back to her home country of Bulgaria last Sunday. She’s not staying with her parents, but in a family friend’s flat. “As the Netherlands is a ‘red zone’, I had to be quarantined for two weeks. My parents need to leave the house for w...

These are very difficult days for Maja Niekrasz, first-year student of European Law. “I have struggled with depression and anxiety all my life. I tend to overthink everything. I got help a couple of years ago and I’ve made a lot of progress since then, but right now I feel like I’ve moved back a few steps.” Her brain is w...

No more moaning about my aversion to video on demand (VOD): let’s take a look at another VOD provider. After Picl and Film 1, we focus on MUBI this week. What is MUBI? MUBI was set up in 2007 – at the time under the name ‘The Auteurs’ – by Turkish entrepreneur and Stanford alumnus Efe Çakarel. His motivation? Fru...

Elisabeth Hiller, a second-year student at University College Maastricht, spent the past two weeks at a fellow student’s house in The Hague. “She invited me to stay with her so I wouldn’t have to be alone if a total lockdown was announced.” As it doesn’t look like the Netherlands will go into a full lockdown, she will ...

It’s quiet in the student house where Lars van Laar, second-year student of Psychology, lives. “Twelve people usually live here, now there are only four. We buy groceries for each other to reduce unnecessary trips to the supermarket. If the weather is nice, we often spend the afternoon sitting in the garden or watching a film together. ...

Master’s student of Policy & Human Development Maren Slangen took her final written exam without even knowing it. “I was supposed to take two more, but the programme directors decided to assign us an online oral exam and a take-home assignment instead because of the corona crisis. I prefer written exams – they give you more ti...

Just like my colleague reviewer Mark Vluggen, I am not a fan of streaming services and organisations such as Netflix or Disney Channel. As far as I am concerned, film belongs on a large screen or else on DVD or Blu-ray. But as has been said, necessity (read: Corona) knows no laws. Let’s see what a provider like Film 1 has to offer. What is...

The coronavirus has the world in its clutch. Not only does it have its own name (SARS CoV2), and its own disease (Covid-19) but more importantly it has been coined as a Pandemic by the World Health Organisation. The health emergency of the disease has thus been lifted to the highest level. ​The impact of this virus on the way we live, work, lear...

Eline van Gorp, second-year student of Medicine, has been assigned a new tutor. Her usual tutor is an infectious disease specialist; she’s too busy working in the lab to lead any online tutorial sessions at the moment. Tutorials are going very well, says Van Gorp. “We have someone leading the session, someone taking notes – i...

Is 2019/2020 a “lost year” because of the crises Maastricht University has had to face? Will all this affect the intake of new students in September? Will students get their tuition fees back? Will UM continue to offer online education in the future? And how much does a crisis like this cost? These are just a few of the questions put to...

“Pretty much all of my friends have left Maastricht”, says Hayden Bunn, a second-year student of the European Law School programme. He also considered going back to the United States, but ultimately decided to stay. “At first, it was unclear how long the university would be closed. I thought it’d be a waste of money to fly h...

Until two weeks ago, second-year student of International Business Hadia Arab lived in an apartment in Maastricht. "I subrented that place and could arrange something with the main tenants." Now, she is living with her parents in Heerlen again. “The university is closed for the time being. I don’t have to be in Maastricht in t...

Not a day seems to pass by anymore without at least three new e-mails updating me about how Corona is affecting my life. By the time I'm writing this, Maastricht University has sent out its 15th Corona update. My current University in Freiburg comes very close to this number too. In Freiburg (as in Maastricht), the Corona outbreak is met wit...

Sahander Nur Ozdil, a first-year University College Maastricht student, has several suitcases in her room. They belong to her father. “He was here two weeks ago to give me moral support. He had to leave for Turkey in a hurry when the Turkish government announced it was closing its borders. We had to rush to Schiphol so he could catch the last...

In the past days, there has been unrest in my neighbourhood. Many people are upset that children are playing outside, people are going for walks, and customers stand too closely at the supermarket. In contrast, many say we’re exaggerating, we should go about our life as much as possible, and didn’t the RIVM say it’s okay for child...

Sara Mazzini, a student in the research master’s programme Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, has nowhere to be, but she is trying to maintain some sort of routine in this time of corona crisis. “I was following a Dutch language course, but the classes got cancelled as of today. I want to dress nicely, take the time to cook and keep e...

Pabita Kister, a second-year UCM student, has been quarantined in her parents’ home in Düsseldorf since last Saturday. “It’s unclear whether I’ve been infected”, she emphasises. “I’m not showing any symptoms yet.” But one of her housemates in Maastricht was very likely infected with the coronavirus. &...

Samuele Livraghi, a first-year student enrolled in the Maastricht Science Programme, is from Lombardy in northern Italy. Although no one in his family has yet been infected with the coronavirus, the situation back home is “quite stressful. New cases are diagnosed every day.” Health care in Italy is very good, says Livraghi. “And i...

When my aunt traveled to Singapore a bit less than three weeks ago, she was met with raised eyebrows from her colleagues. “Is it really wise what you are doing?”, they asked her condescendingly. “Do you really want to go to Asia?" By that point, there weren't any COVID-19 cases in the Netherlands yet, and everyone seemed ...

European Law School student Mashid Mojabi attended her first online tutorial session last Monday. She’s happy that her faculty is continuing to provide education via the Internet. “I’m a fourth-year student. I’d like to get my degree.” The switch to online teaching was made quickly, says Mojabi. “I only heard abo...

MAASTRICHT. Observant will only be published online for the next few weeks (www.observantonline.nl) and not in printed form. This has to do with the measures taken to curtail further spreading of the coronavirus as much as possible: students are no longer allowed to enter UM buildings, education activities are carried out online, and staff members ...

“Whatever we wear, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no.” “Hey-hey, ho-ho, homophobia has got to go.” It’s Sunday afternoon, 8 March, International Women’s Day. Quite a large group has assembled on the Vrijthof. A flag saying “Women of the World Unite!” has been attached to the iron railing o...

An often-heard complaint in Maastricht is that the cost of student housing has increased a lot over the past years. Indeed, if you take the snazzy rooms at the Student Hotel as an example, it seems like finding an affordable place to live in Maastricht is something that is a thing of the past. The topic of student housing is one of many debates ...

Aside from the ‘usual suspects’ – the Dutch, Germans and Belgians – the number of Italians at Maastricht University is growing more quickly than any other nationality. Two-hundred and twenty-five were added for a bachelor’s and 150 for a master’s in 2019. The second places in these categories: France with 125 new...

23 December 2019, 19:35hrs. Personnel from the UM’s IT service ICTS notice that various systems are slowing down. The permanent internal crisis team CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) sounds the alarm. The UM has been hacked. Within an hour, they are on the spot; they will stay all night. In vain: the UM network is down, including the e-...

MAASTRICHT. If there is anything we have seen during this recent cyberattack, said President Martin Paul last Monday at a well-attended New Year’s reception in the Bonnefantenmuseum, it is the community spirit within this university. Some staff did not have a Christmas holiday, but instead had to make long working hours. “The crisis man...

She is a little wary; mentioning her home country in the article makes her very uncomfortable. The same holds for her current city of residence “somewhere in the Euregio”, says Fazilet Caglayan (23), master’s student of Globalisation and Law. She draws a picture of the “human rights violations” she saw when the army in...

“We are very committed towards the EU, but we don't want immigrants. That is an issue that is non-negotiable,” says Hungarian ambassador András Kocsis in the Statenzaal of the Law faculty. Last Saturday, he engaged in a debate with former Dutch minister of Foreign Affairs Ben Bot on the rift between Eastern and Western Europe. Th...

The first deadlines have come and gone. The first final examinations are silently knocking on my door, whispering, in the true UCM spirit, that everything will be ok. I look down at my phone. The train ticket back to the Netherlands, back to my other home, has already been downloaded on it for weeks. The e-mail from the Semester Abroad Office th...

There's music coming from the radio, there are electric heaters in the corners, and there's scattered building material on the ground. The first phase of the renovations at Tapijn barracks, in which the carré-buildings on the Prins Bisschopsingel were given a complete makeover, is almost finished. Some eighty to a hundred construction worke...

It’s a cold, dark Tuesday night. A group of six theatre geeks wrap up their conversation in front of the bar in which they’ve been talking about their upcoming production, gender and hierarchy in theatre, and the future in general. Time flew by inside, but by now everyone just wants to get home and wrap themselves up in a fluffy blanket...

“I have so much respect for that woman,” a student says to her friends in the corridor of the Ipanema hall of the Bonnefanten museum. She is talking about Rianne Letschert, rector of Maastricht University. Letschert was the guest at the Maastricht version of the well-known TV programme College Tour last Thursday. Where normally the pres...

Sleeping under the stars - singing around a campfire - learning to juggle by a cold lake It seems like a shot from a movie. One of those movies where people just eat one bite of their croissant and then leave the beautifully laid breakfast table. Where the protagonists don't turn off the light when they leave their house. Where everyone seem...

MAASTRICHT. Is the university library full and your room not really a great place to study? Student representatives of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences organised another ‘Study Saturday’ in the building on the Grote Gracht 76 last Saturday. All classrooms and the regular study spaces were available. Café Banditos was open to...

I love meat, but it’s obvious that I will have to reduce my meat consumption. Given the excessive amount of nitrogen produced in the Netherlands, we have to decide whether to build less or to reduce the amount of livestock. Since the number of households is expected to increase by almost one million in the next three decades, and we don&rsquo...

MAASTRICHT. No European Song Contest in Maastricht next year - that will be celebrated in Rotterdam – but we will have the celebrations for King Willem-Alexander’s birthday together with his family. On King’s day, 27 April 2020, the city will be awash with orange. “It is an absolute honour that the King will come to our city...

Arabian sounds come from the living room of the student pastoral care centre The InnBetween. The place is lit by candles. Some fifty visitors are sitting on the floor with a cup of tea near the stage or on one of the folding chairs, listening to the Palestinian Bint Mbareh. For het master’s thesis, she researched traditional Palestinian rain ...

MAASTRICHT. International student club Kaleido won't be moving to Kleine Gracht 41 after all. Before the summer, there were rumours that this would be their new ‘living room’ from which a “community could be built”. That is what Thomas Schäfer, project leader for Maastricht University said back then. Now it appears that ...

I've always prided myself on knowing my languages. Until I went to Penang, Malaysia. While enjoying my delicious banana pancakes one warm morning, Sandra, the (Indian) woman in charge of the restaurant area of the little hotel I was staying at came over and we started chatting casually. The conversation quickly turned to the different ethnic...

Bob is still in… Singapore? I thought this was going to be a blog about your exchange to Freiburg, Germany? Also, who is Bob? Bob is a lizard - you’ll get to know him later on. And regarding the first question: universities in Germany only start mid-October. Mid-October? Isn’t that our first exam week? Yes, I w...

Cheers come from a room in the Bonnefanten Museum. A group of freshmen has just successfully completed the Euroscoop film quiz. They continue to explore the museum where there are other activities and performances to be found and the exhibition of Andy Summers: A Certain Strangeness to be seen. The silent disco – which was also present at ...

“I’m pretty amazed at how easy it is to make friends”, says Evelina Jahimovica (19), cheerfully at the Griend where she’s enjoying the Sportsevent. “Everybody is so open. Yesterday at the morning workout, I met a girl who also studies European Public Health. She recognized me from the Facebook group and we started chat...

“Maybe I’m not a good person to interview right now, I just got stung by wasp in the face”, says Dimitar Dimitrov (18). He holds a plastic cup with ice-cold water against the side of his face. “The people from the first aid gave it to me. They said it will be fine.” Luckily he’s not too tired, he got a good night...