In previous years, University College Venlo (UCV) sat proudly near the top of the list of the best programmes in the Keuzegids, the Dutch university guide. Students were full of praise for the programme, lecturers, assessments and atmosphere. This year, Venlo is still doing well, but is no longer at the top. It is also a different picture financially, because the cost of the programme is higher than its income. At the moment, there are eighty students in total. Which begs the question, why does the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) continue to support an unprofitable degree programme?
Small-scale
Neither dean Thomas Cleij nor director Bakir Bulić would consider closing down UCV, not for a moment. Not even considering the disappointing number of new students. Eighteen students is a “minimum”, says Cleij, but UCV should not be seen as a “stand alone” institution, he considers it “an important cog in a larger machine”.
UCV started in 2015, following in the footsteps of its older sister, University College Maastricht (UCM): taught in English, small-scale, and with the freedom to organise your own programme. The difference lies mostly in its themes, with Venlo opting for a more liberal arts curriculum: health and nutrition. While UCM and the Maastricht Science Programme (the third branch of the Colleges system) usually attract two hundred first years, Venlo welcomes far fewer.
Last September was a low point with only eighteen new students, previous years had hovered around thirty or forty. 2021 was a record year for UCV’s student population: 147 students in total.
Cleij: “There was a tremendous recruitment drive in the first few years, and after a while, it was thought to be enough. We never managed to attract hundreds of students, but they were an enthusiastic group, a nice community, predominantly international students, who often moved on to the two UM master’s programmes in Venlo (which have been there since 2009, see below).” The political climate of the last few years has meant that universities were more reluctant to recruit international students. And, says Cleij, that also meant that a programme such as UCV was unable to reach as many interested prospective students.
Sustainable agriculture
It was important for UM to establish a presence in the area, says Bulić. “It is a region with much to offer in terms of sustainable agriculture and food innovation.” Millions have been invested in buildings, labs, and research groups (see below) by the university, the municipality of Venlo, and province administration.
Although it was always Cleij and Bulić’s desire to offer more programmes in Venlo alongside UCV, that was no easy task. They would have liked to be able to offer the bachelor’s programme Sustainable Bioscience and the master’s programme Crop Biotechnology and Engineering (set to start in September 2026) two years earlier. Unfortunately, the Committee for Effective Higher Education (CDHO), which advises the Minster of Education, was convinced in an earlier stage that the two programmes would not sufficiently fill a demand in the labour market, and that there was too much overlap between the proposed master’s programme and an existing degree programme at Wageningen University. Wageningen University raised their objections with the Committee, but were ultimately unsuccessful.
By bus
Cleij calls the addition of Sustainable Bioscience and Crop Biotechnology and Engineering “a huge development”. He is convinced that in just a few years, Venlo will attract over a thousand students. A large proportion will live on the Brightlands campus, where construction of student accommodation will begin shortly. There are, however, still other logistical challenges. Bus routes between the campus and the city centre have been limited (for years) – the bus only goes once an hour. FSE directors would like that to change. The new Sustainable Bioscience students who will soon be present on campus will occasionally need to head to UCV in the centre of Venlo for classes. In turn, UCV students will need to travel to Brightlands to use the labs.
Building
Cleij and Bulić are in no doubt about the value of the Brightlands campuses outside Maastricht (Sittard-Geleen, Heerlen, Venlo). “If we were to ignore the different regions in the province, things would look very different for UM, especially considering the recent political climate,” says Cleij. “It is part of FSE’s DNA to want to build, to experiment.”
And yet, pioneering brings risks, too. They depend on external funding, such as the province or the municipalities. Not to mention, it takes time to build a presence (just look at the number of students in Venlo), and then there is the lack of structural university support. In Maastricht, there is one cleaning crew for all the university buildings, one Wi-Fi system, student psychologists, security, reception services, library support, and so forth. The campuses have to organise all that ‘by themselves’.
President of the Executive Board, Rianne Letschert, and vice-president Jan-Tjitte Meindersma stated clearly in an article in Observant last year, that there would be no cuts to the campuses. In an interview about potential austerity measures at UM as a result of the plans of the government at the time, Letschert said: “Our lobby (in The Hague) is about UM as the ‘European university of the Netherlands’, but also about embedding the university in the region.”