Kremers had a clear vision of how the university could put itself on the map. But his vision sometimes clashed with others, he recounts in an Observant podcast recorded to mark UM’s fiftieth anniversary. “After the medical faculty was established, there was a plan to set up a faculty for policy civil servants. I thought, ‘These people have gone mad’. I just knew that other Dutch universities would love the idea – with an initiative like that, Maastricht would no longer be a threat to them.”
Kremers advised against the idea and urged the Executive Board to go back to the drawing board. In his view, the focus should be on setting up affordable faculties. “Not disciplines like the natural sciences, with their laboratories, but faculties that would attract large numbers of students. To me, that meant law and economics.”
And so it happened. Kremers’ strong political connections, notably with Prime Minister Dries van Agt (CDA), enabled him as Queen’s Commissioner to push through various decisions in support of Limburg’s economic restructuring and the university’s interests. He also ensured the academic hospital was built.
That UM is now celebrating its fiftieth anniversary is “wonderful”, he says. “Maastricht had so much potential – and it has lived up to it. Credit where credit is due.”
Listen to the Observant podcast (it is in Dutch with English subtitles) with Kremers and discover where the table stands today at which Queen Juliana sat in 1976 to sign the university's founding document.