The first plans for University College Maastricht (UCM) date back to the late 1990s. Rector Arie Nieuwenhuijzen Kruseman and founding fathers Louis Boon and Louk de la Rive Box envisioned a liberal arts college – Utrecht had introduced the concept in the Netherlands in 1998 – where motivated students could design their own curriculums, meet up in a common room after class and build an intellectual community with their lecturers. They were to become genuine academics.
At first, deans at UM were enthusiastic. (“Who could object to this on intellectual grounds?”) But their support quickly faded when they realised that they would have to supply UCM with not only their best lecturers, but also a large chunk of its funding – between €500,000 and €700,000 per faculty. For the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, there was an additional concern: Dean Tummers warned that the new programme might lure away prospective FASoS students.
Unfair
The local student union NSEM said it was unfair that only UCM students would receive a broad education. In an opinion piece in Observant, they argued that existing degree programmes had become “impoverished” and the whole university ought to operate like a University College.
Still, interest in the upcoming programme was encouraging: 84 prospective students attended the Open Days in late 2001. The aim was to attract 100 students in the first year, rising to a maximum of 150 in subsequent years. But enrolment was supposed to open on 1 December 2001, and as little as two weeks beforehand, the University Council and the deans had yet to give the green light.
The deans were the first to give in, once it became clear they wouldn’t have to dip into their own budgets after all. For the first few years, UCM would be funded from a central pot originally intended to fund additional research across the faculties. Executive Board member Anne Flierman put it simply: “No one will have to pay any money – they’ll just receive a bit less of it.”
Final hurdle
The final hurdle was the University Council. In a chaotic November meeting, the university rector turned up the heat: if the Council didn’t give its approval, the entire proposal would be shelved – and that, it was implied, would be the Council’s fault. After three adjournments, a reluctant “yes” was secured, allowing UCM to go ahead. Decisions on funding, representation and tuition fees would follow in December.
Just before Christmas, the University Council gave its approval – though there was still grumbling about using research funds, and strong opposition to higher tuition fees (which had been built into the budget from 2005 onwards). Raising tuition fees, it was argued, would increase inequality and restrict access to higher education.
“Preventive culling”
In September 2002, 75 first-year students began their studies at Bouillonstraat 8-10. The University Council remained critical in those early years. It opposed the Binding Study Advice (BSA) policy, which Dean Louis Boon – much to the Council’s annoyance – referred to as “preventive culling” (a joke, he said later). Boon hit back: “So far, the University Council has done nothing but get in the way whenever UCM is involved.”
The popularity of the programme was unaffected by any of this. Student numbers rose rapidly; UCM soon outgrew its premises and moved to its current home on Zwingelput. It went on to gain two sister programmes in Limburg – the Maastricht Science Programme and University College Venlo – and continues to earn top ratings and accolades in the Dutch University Guide Keuzegids to this day.