Governance

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

If the United Kingdom leaves the European Union without a deal, British students studying in the Netherlands need not worry. They can continue their studies under the same conditions. Chances of a ‘hard’ Brexit have increased, after a big majority of the British parliament voted against prime minister Theresa May’s proposal on ...

My colleague Juan Francisco Palacios Temprano has a large family in Asturias, Northern Spain. This region boasts a rich tradition of making cured meats from a famous Spanish breed of pig. Every winter, when the weather is forecast to be cold and dry, the men in the family slaughter a pig after having spent more than six months raising it with love ...

MAASTRICHT. Green Impact, launched by the Green Office during the Opening of the Academic Year last Monday, is a change and engagement programme that awards university teams for sustainability efforts at the workplace. It’s already being implemented in several Dutch universities. Now Maastricht University is one of them. Encourage your team ...

MAASTRICHT. A colourful oasis in an endless plain of mud. That is how one could describe the Tapijn Garden, the way it stands out in the corner of the churned-up barracks grounds. The “city vegetable garden” itself looks very well cared for, except perhaps for the section where everything is growing together. “That looks like a me...

MAASTRICHT. Ten thousand yellow plastic ducks floated along the Jeker in the Stadspark during the annual Duck Race last Sunday, which was opened by André Rieu. For the first time in history, all ducks – the proceeds of which go to two different charities every year – were sold. The Refugee Project Maastricht by the University Chaplaincy...

MAASTRICHT. It is time for the XXL weeks at the University Library again. This means that the library is bursting at its seams with students studying. Elise Abraham, second-year student of Economics from Belgium and Mimi Ahlsrog, second-year student of International Business from Finland, can be found at the Inner-City University Library every day....

“Why did Napoleon never attack Geneva? Napoleon: ‘Geneva? Why would I attack Geneva? Everybody speaks English there.’”, according to ringmaster Teun Dekker, using these words to present the introductory video that accompanies the evening’s fourth proposition: ‘The city council should offer free Dutch courses to e...

We all know the stereotypes about ‘he-men’ and ‘she-women’: they eat chicken all day long, their IQs barely crack 100 and they drop their weights hard enough to make the floor shake. In the run-up to the Dutch Student Nationals Powerlifting Classic, Observant asked five gym buffs about these stereotypes, their motivation, di...

Could it have been intended as a service to the female professors and rector? A small gesture to help them navigate the cobblestones in their stilettos? Last Monday afternoon, the Minderbroedersberg was draped for the first time in a long green carpet. Well-intentioned, perhaps, but not particularly effective: now there was no way at all to steer a...

Her life is at risk in Nigeria, because Judith (whose surname will be withheld for privacy reasons) is quite open about her sexual orientation in her home country. She is a lesbian, living and working as a human rights activist and who is now in Maastricht for three months. The Faculty of Law will take care of her as part of the Shelter City Progra...

MAASTRICHT. Maastricht intends to continue the Shelter City programme. This was decided by the city council after a trial period of two years. This initiative by Justice and Peace Netherlands enables foreign human rights defenders to recover for a period of three months, to work and study in a Dutch city. At the moment, eight cities are participati...

MAASTRICHT. With almost 2,300 prospective students, the Maastricht University’s spring Bachelor's Open Day last Saturday had more visitors than ever before. Especially the Dutch study programmes of Medicine and Health Sciences were popular (both more than four hundred visitors). During the Open Day last autumn, on the other hand, there wa...

After the ceremony, during the reception in the lobby of the Vrijthof theatre, Professor Nanne de Vries is still panting. Why was he in such a hurry to present the Dissertation Award, the final item on the agenda of the Dies celebration? “I had to do it fast!” he bursts out. “We were already running late and the government people ...

MAASTRICHT. During the Dies Natalis celebrations on Tuesday 7 February, the Wynand Wijnen Education Prize 2016 was awarded to Jeannette Hommes, assistant professor at the School of Business and Economics. The jury, chaired by Rector Rianne Letschert, praised her contributions to the educational development of the faculty and professionali...

MAASTRICHT. Rubbish was an item on the agenda at the School of Business and Economics (SBE) council meeting last summer. The following dialogue developed:  “I have heard a rumour that wastepaper baskets are going to disappear from offices and classrooms,” says council member and lecturer Marc van Ekert. “And that we would ...

How do you organise an opening of the academic year where the audience doesn’t fall asleep? When students proposed organising this year’s programme themselves, Maastricht University president Martin Paul, never a big fan of these sorts of festivities, jumped at the chance. That would liven things up, he figured. He was right....

Without him there would have been no university, no hospital, perhaps not even a city to gradually awaken from its provincial slumber. So if any Maastrichtenaar deserves a statue, it’s Sjeng Tans. He was a true daredevil, a Labour Party (PvdA) politician who fought for a university in Limburg. The statue was created by the artist Caius Spr...

MAASTRICHT. Students in the Psychology faculty council want lectures to be recorded in the future. They have written a proposal on the matter that will be dealt with on Thursday afternoon in the faculty council meeting. “There is a need,” says Hanne van Kasteren, one of the authors of the proposal, which will be discussed in the faculty...

Maximiliane Kolb, 23, Bachelor in International Business, Class of 2015 “The biggest struggle for me was that I didn’t know where to go and what to do. Of course Maastricht University offers things like the Business Days, which help you orientate yourself to some extent, but what I was missing was a career centre where you could go a...

MAASTRICHT. Until 8 June only UM cardholders will be permitted to enter the University Library in the inner city. Students who don’t have a UM card can gain entry on presentation of their ID and certificate of registration. “We are working hard to guarantee that UM students have a study place during the exam period”, say the libra...

MAASTRICHT. “You will see, we are about to go live and five minutes later the shit storm will break loose.” It won’t be nice, all that criticism, but “they care”. Bernadette Jansma addresses the audience in Brasserie Tapijn on Wednesday morning, 18 May, just before Maastricht University’s new website is launched....

MAASTRICHT/BRUSSELS. Maastricht University’s campus in Brussel has been closed for the time being because of the attacks at Zaventem Airport and Maalbeek metro station, Tuesday 22 March. School children from the Montessori Lyceum in Zeist, who were to visit the premises tuesday, turned back while they were on their way, says Vivianne Hei...

MAASTRICHT. Prince Bastiaan 1st and his Tempeleers put Vrow Wielemösj on the stage at Student Services last Thursday. In doing so, the landlady from the Platielstraat, the symbol of student Carnival, is back where she belongs. For the past two or three years she had remained in storage with the Maastricht Carnival Association, because the annu...

MAASTRICHT. Maastricht University is the highest Dutch university on the latest Most International Universities ranking, published last week. The British Times Higher Education (THE) journal places Maastricht in fourteenth position – last year it was in 88th place. THE bases its ranking on the percentage of foreign students and employees and...

MAASTRICHT. Resuscitation training for secondary-school pupils is what UM runners will be sweating for on 17 January during the ‘Zweit veur Leid’ run. It is the third time that the University Fund/SWOL participates in a sponsored run with their own good cause. “It fits in well with our knowledge institute,” says Charlotte Gr...

MAASTRICHT. ‘The next generation’ is the theme of this year’s Serious Request event, during which three popular radio DJs are locked up for six days in a small, temporary studio. Donations will go to children in conflict areas. “The university just had to be involved”, said Ellen Breevoort of the UM working group, who ...

MAASTRICHT. Walking nine kilometres for a good cause. On Tuesday 8 December at 18:30hrs., a torchlight procession for employees and students will start from the Minderbroedersberg. The procession will pass the Sint Pietersberg and continue on to the Cannerberg and Louwberg, pausing for hot chocolate and glühwein in the courtyard of Chateau Neercann...

MAASTRICHT. Tuesday evening, the Maastricht city council said ‘yes’ to the plans for the establishment of The Student Hotel in the Eiffel building at the top of the Boschstraat. The following morning, Gerdo van Grootheest, the alderman concerned, twittered that he was “very happy”. He had a tough time these past few weeks. ...

MAASTRICHT. The technical universities of Twente and Eindhoven have raised concerns about the study programmes at the BISS institute Business Intelligence and Smart Services (BISS) institute in Heerlen. The institute, established by the School of Business and Economics (SBE) and partners, will focus on transforming big data into services. The techn...

MAASTRICHT. What is more important: targeting poverty or human rights? This is the question that occupied Guleid, chairman of the Somali Human Rights Centre and participant in Maastricht’s Shelter Programme, at the Somaliland Human Rights Info Night last Tuesday. Leonie Eilers, a first-year student of European Public Health, heard about th...

MAASTRICHT. Five of the programmes at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences that were issued a ‘yellow card’ by quality watchdog NVAO in 2013, seem to have received the go-ahead. The Qanu committees that assess the quality for NVAO, are satisfied with the changes that have been implemented. This means that the ‘yellow ca...

MAASTRICHT. Students from the Refugee Project helped to receive new refugees in the Netherlands last week. On 13 October, the Maastricht city council decided to accept hundreds of additional asylum seekers in the Limmel refugee centre. “I received a phone call asking if there were volunteers from the Refugee Project who’d be willing to ...

I get to the library around 8:15 and there’s already a huge queue waiting at the centre of the glass windows. As its namesake would suggest, the Running of the Germans is a Maastricht phenomenon in which German students line up before the opening of the library to vie for the best study spot. If you’re an exchange student, like me, or j...

MAASTRICHT. Next Monday will see the start of the Maastricht University’s first MOOC (Massive Online Open Course). A internal pilot project was run in May. This course is unique in its set-up: where MOOCs are normally set up according to a traditional education model, this is the first one to apply problem-based learning – which is also...

MAASTRICHT. A large number of employees at the Faculty of Law sit at their computer for longer than six hours a day and many end up with painful or fatigued fingers, wrists, shoulders or neck. This was the outcome of the ‘risk inventory’ survey, held last summer. It asked questions about the workplace and the work carried out in front o...

MAASTRICHT. The lecture hall of the School of Business and Economics has gone through some significant changes over the summer. Gone are the long benches; they have been replaced by individual chairs with their own folding table and power point. Also, a hundred extra seats were added to the hall.

MAASTRICHT. “A mind-shift is needed, and in certain cases it may be necessary to appoint an external female candidate, even when suitable internal male candidates are available.” That is what the memo about Women in Academia by the Executive Board states. During the opening of the academic year, it was announced that the Board would dra...