Saurus members talking to new students during this year's INKOM

New membership low again for Maastricht student associations

Sports associations see steady membership increase

30-09-2024 · News

MAASTRICHT. The main student associations at Maastricht are yet again attracting significantly fewer members than pre-Covid. Sports associations, on the other hand, are increasingly popular.

Student rowing association Saurus added the most new members this year: 135. That’s twelve more than last year, meaning Saurus is the only one of the four ‘main’ associations showing a decided increase. “It may be that the success of the Dutch rowers at the Olympic Games helped,” says chair Joep Eijkens.

The number of new members for ‘traditional’ student associations Circumflex and Tragos is comparable to last year: 100 and 84, respectively. Student association KoKo has fewer, 77 compared to 90 last year, but the sign up period there lasts until 1 October. “There are more activities in the coming week, so we do expect more new members,” says club secretary Anniko van Os.

However, the number of new members is still much lower than before the Covid pandemic; all four had more than a hundred new members practically every year, sometimes even nearing two hundred. After a peak during the Covid years – when an exceptional number of first years signed up in search of social contacts – the downward trend from last year is clearly visible.

Less positive image

According to Joost Mol, chair of Circumflex, the changing image of student associations has played a part. “The image first years have is less positive.” Tragos chair Floor van Son says the same: “Abuse during initiation, for example, is discussed extensively in the media, whilst almost no attention is paid to the positive sides: close friendships, a large network, experience from taking part in committees.” KoKo is also affected, “and our members don’t even have to go through initiation”.

Furthermore, a different attitude seems to be prevalent under the new generation of students, the board members insist. “The motto appears to be: graduate quickly, have fewer extracurriculars,” says Van Son. “The delay penalty doesn’t help, either.”

Increased interest for sports

Sports associations can count on an increased interest, though. The number of Maastricht sports association members increases year on year: from about two thousand in 2017 to more than three thousand in 2023 – for comparison, the four ‘main’ student associations have between four and five hundred active members each. “Last academic year there was a small dip, because the hockey association shrank significantly,” says Luc Wehrens, chair of the umbrella sports council MUSST. “But we expect an increase again this year.” The sports council won’t know the final new membership numbers until November.

Rise of Zuyd students?

The main student associations have a surprising number of board members who study at the Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Observant wrote last week – for KoKo and Tragos, three out of seven board members, at Circumflex even four out of seven. But what about the members? What is ratio of Zuyd students to UM students? About 15 percent of Circumflex’s members studies at the university of applied sciences, says chairman Joost Mol. The other three main associations don’t have exact numbers, but do see that it is a considerable minority.

KoKo estimates it is somewhere between a quarter to a third of members, but “it doesn’t really matter to us, every student is welcome,” says KoKo board member Anniko van Os. The number of Zuyd students at Tragos is “growing steadily”, says Floor van Son, Tragos chair and Zuyd student. “The association is increasingly accessible to this group, who are also more open to joining.”