“I’m not an exemplary student,” says first-year student of Law Nicolas Richartz. He has a lawbook open in front of him, with all kinds of stickers. “I am studying for the resits this week: International Law on Thursday and European Law on Friday. I had another one this morning for Constitutional Law.” He hasn’t passed a single exam yet this year, but he isn’t giving up. “Everything that I have seen already, will help with next year.”
Richartz has wanted to study at Maastricht University from an early age. Not completely surprising, if you think that his granddad (who passed away in 2013) was an old familiar name to UM. Mark Richartz was appointed as professor of Psychiatry in 1977 and was the chairman of what was then called the department of Clinical Psychology. “I learned from him what science is. I actually wanted to study Psychology, but I was too late signing up.”
So, he found a study without a numerus fixus in which he was also interested: Dutch Law. Not European Law School? “No, I am extremely dyslectic, so reading in my own language already takes a lot of time.” By the way, he doesn’t blame his failed exams on that. Richartz has had a hard time getting used to the Maastricht problembased learning system: not a lot of structure and a lot of freedom. “I live just across the border in Belgium and I also went to school there, in Lanaken. The school system is very different: much stricter and it consists mainly of learning things off by heart. There was no real depth. If I asked for more details, the answer was always: ‘You will learn that later on.’”
After the resits, he also has a skills test in Criminal Law next week. And after that, going on holiday? “I will if I pass Criminal Law.”