Latest blog articles

The Facebook page “Stuff Dutch People Like” recently published a list of what Dutch people do not like. First place: Being confused for a German. Second place: Germans. Whoa! 

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around 70,000 refugees have reached Turkey and it is expected that hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees will arrive at the Turkish border in the coming days and weeks.

Recently, I received an offer to write a regular, five weekly column in Dagblad De Limburger. The newspaper was looking for a new group of columnists and thought I might be a suitable candidate. I don’t think this blog was the reason; a journalist who then came to interview me for an article in the...

For all you new and recurring students we organised a little interview with our very own police officer, Paul Vermin. He was happy to answer any of our questions regarding student safety. You may have met him during the INKOM, or during an inauguration of an association, with which mr. Vermin has...

Scientific research involving animal testing at Maastricht University caused a lot of commotion last week. A group of animal rights activists mobilized, according to their own sources, more than 100.000 people to sign a petition to halt experiments involving dogs in particular. Emotions got so...

The ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ has gone viral. Celebrities like Bill Gates, Charlie Sheen, and the one and only Justin Bieber, have participated in the challenge creating the publicity that have turned it into a hype.  Your timeline is probably filled with people posting their video and nominations...

It’s that time again when national chauvinism takes over – the football World Cup is here! Pubs and entire streets are made up in orange and I am glad that I “naturalized” my German car with yellow license plates years ago (it would otherwise be too dangerous in my street…). The fan composition...

Extra money: simply divvy it up or find a special use for it? The Executive Board and the deans did not have to think long when the question arose recently. Setting it off was a message from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science “that in the supplementary budget 2014 a substantial...

Maastricht is experiencing a new dynamic: student en stad, a project that addresses the usual issues inherent to a university city, such as the specific needs of the young, diverse student population and the negative side-effects, commonly summarized by the Dutch term “studentenoverlast”. The...

I really envy Luc, our rector, he is not only very smart and running much faster than I ever could, he also has a nice office with a glass frame that allows you to see if he is there, with whom he is in a meeting or what he is doing. This creates a sense of transparency that represents the openness...