The highlight of the festivities will be in September 2016. The opening of the 2016-2017 academic year in the Vrijthof Theatre will this time also be interesting for the inhabitants of the city; unfortunately, nothing is known about the programme yet. The same applies to the PAS festival, (Parcours of Arts & Science) that will last three days (8-10 September); the previous two one-day versions were a huge success. Furthermore, there will a grand ball for students and employees in the same week.
Throughout the year, more or less normal UM activities will receive a “hint of jubilee”, while there will also be all kinds of special activities. For example, the neighbours of the forty UM buildings will be invited for coffee, as will inhabitants of Maastricht who are also turning 40; Tuna (groups singing Spanish songs), the university orchestra and the university choir will visit retirement homes, and at various places around the province science will be “given back to the people who made donations or supported the UM in some way,” reports Jos Kievits from the University Fund Limburg. And there will be a bicycle tour that will cover forty ‘unknown hills’ in Limburg.
The programme can be viewed on a special website. The motto of all this is, according to Paul: “We are opening our doors, do come in.”