The theme of this year is ‘Building Bridges’ and refers to various bridges: the one from pupil to student, but literally also the numerous bridges that the city has. “And the bridge between citizens and students,” says Lotte Kaesler, chairperson of the Working Group INKOM. “We would like more contact between the two. For example, we are putting notes in the doors informing neighbours in the area surrounding the Tapijnkazerne (where a large part of the activities take place, ed.) and we try to reach people with our social media channels.” But are people from Maastricht interested in that? “Students are, after all, part of the city. We want to show that Maastricht, has more to offer, during but also after their studies.” Hence the new item called ‘Build your Future’. Kaesler: “We are negotiating with Brightlands – innovative campuses in the field of health, sustainability and digitalisation – and the city authorities to set up a jobs market. Participants can also take workshops on things such as how to draw up a CV.” Another new element is a history lesson about the city, not by a guide, but – completely in style with the times – a specially developed app. Students can become acquainted with each other and the city by following a hunt that has been set out. Student association Tragos is allowed to participate again, after having been excluded from participating last year. Their plan to change the association’s culture after misconduct in 2022 has convinced UM sufficiently to restore the link.
After last year's pilot, secondary vocational education students from the VISTA college are again allowed to sign up for INKOM. There were four participants last year. They are hoping for more this year.
A few things are changing behind the scenes. The working group has been reduced from five to four students and two professionals have joined the team. “INKOM has been growing bigger and bigger and over the past few years we have seen that things also went wrong. We can no longer leave issues such as permits, putting out tenders, and safety to students,” says deputy manager of SSC Birgitte Hendrickx. That is why a fulltime position of project leader has been created this academic year, which was filled by former treasurer (2014) Jeroen Custers. “This is a challenge for him too, because everything has become more complicated.” There is also someone who does the administration and finances two days a week.
Participants aren’t going to notice any of this: “The students will continue to be the face of INKOM 2024.”