| Maastricht University

The Effective Communication courses focus on helping you become a more confident and fluent user of English. You’ll improve your English skills through practicing a variety of communicative tasks, such as discussions, negotiations, and teamwork reports.

Content, format, activities

If you wish to improve your academic skills in English, then this Effective Communication course is perfect. In the course you will improve your communication skills by acquiring a deeper understanding of grammar, spoken English, listening comprehension, reading and writing skills. It is specially designed for students who need to become more confident and fluent users of English, so it is ideal for those who have a good passive knowledge of English, but now need to bring that knowledge into practice. In small groups, you will work on improving all your English skills through a variety of communicative tasks and to test and actively practice your English skills for use in an academic environment. As a result, you will become a more accurate and effective communicator. This course is ideal for those students who score within the lower 20% in the English Language Diagnostic Test.

Literature

New Language Leader Upper Intermediate Coursebook, ISBN 9781447961543

Dates

5 October - 7 December 2016 Wednesday 16.00-18.00

5 October - 7 December 2016 Wednesday 18.30-20.30

Format: 10 weeks, 1 x week, 2 hours.

Fees

EUR 235 for 20 contact hours (+ self-study and assignments!)

Registration

Registration now open (deadline 22 September 2016) via the website

Course code: E-2

President Maastricht University

Prof. dr. Rianne Letschert (1976) is President of Maastricht University since November 2021. She was Rector Magnificus of Maastricht University from September 2016 till February 2022.

Rianne studied International Law at Tilburg University, the University of Amsterdam and the University of Montpellier. From April to August 2010 she was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge (UK), and Research Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge. In 2014, she was Visiting Professor at the University of Barcelona. In 2012, Letschert joined De Jonge Akademie (Young Academy) of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences of which she became chairperson in April 2015.

She has authored and edited several book publications and articles in national and international journals. She also served as director of the International Victimology Institute (INTERVICT/Tilburg University), where she established a master's degree in Victimology and Criminal Justice, which quickly attracted many national and international students from different academic disciplines. Working in an interdisciplinary team has greatly influenced her own scientific development.

In May 2015, she and her team were awarded a Vidi grant by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research to study the impact of international tribunals on societies and individuals that have been confronted with serious human rights violations and international crimes.

Rianne Letschert has always dedicated a lot of time to translating scientific knowledge into societal impact. For example, she was an expert consultant on behalf of the victims at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, she gave several public lectures and her extracurricular positions are related to socially relevant themes.

One of her main tasks as the administrative co-leader of a national programme ‘Recognition and Rewards’ by the Dutch Association of Universities is to implement the position paper 'Room for Everyone's Talent', not only in Maastricht but in the entire academic sector. Her recent appointment as President of CoARA, the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment, fits perfectly in her ambition to fundamentally reassess the career paths and opportunities of academic staff.

In March 2023, she became chair of the Advisory Committee of the National Growth Fund.

Download the inaugural speech 'Stronger through Diversity' by prof. dr. Rianne Letschert

Contact

President's Office

Patrice Keijzer
+31 43 38 83210

Linda van Engelshoven
+31 43 38 82746

president-office@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Current additional positions

Related to the position of President of Maastricht University:

Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) - Chair
Taskorce AI Hub Brightlands - Chair
Universities of the Netherlands - Member SSPG
University Fund Limburg/SWOL - Vice-chair
Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) - Partnerschip Board member
Young Universities for the Future of Europe (YUFE) - President

Related to the position of professorship:

Academia Europaea - Member
Catharina Ziekenhuis - Member Supervisory Board
Fonds Slachtofferhulp - Member Supervisory Board
Koninklijke Hollandse Maatschappij der Nederlanden - Member
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and Ministry of Finance - Chair National Growth Fund
Stichting REDRESS Nederland - Secretary

Research publications

Prof. dr. Rianne Letschert

Speeches

Academic Leadership - Nurturing Talent, Developing Skills
Dies Natalis, 31 January 2020

Global Challenges, Future Imaginations
Dies Natalis, 25 January 2019

The power of people
Key note at the HEInnovative Conference ‘Make Innovation Work in Higher Education', Brussels 27-28 February 2018

The Future of a Data-Driven Society
Dies Natalis, 26 January 2018

UM Diversity and Inclusivity Day
speech, 8 November 2017

Acceptance speech first annual YAE Prize
at the joint AE/ALLEA/YAE meeting in Budapest, 6 September 2017

This lecture discusses the place of the European Union in the 21st century against the background of the changing reality of regional and global politics. What is the role of the EU and its member states, now that we left the ‘mad’ 20th century behind? Is Europe a continent in decline or has integration within the EU revitalised and imbued it with the potential of being a new global player in a multipolar world without a dominant power? The crises in Ukraine and Syria illustrate that it is not an option to merely sit on the side-lines, while at the same time demonstrating the high complexity of the challenges that need to be faced.

By putting the EU’s role in a broader regional and international context and by analysing some of the key regional and global responses that have been formulated, this lecture discusses how in recent years the EU has been trying to redefine its international role.

UM Star Lecture in The Hague

Biography

Sophie Vanhoonacker is Professor in European Administrative Governance, holds a Jean Monnet Chair at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS), and is head of the Politics Department at Maastricht University. As from January 2016 she will also serve as the dean of FASoS. Her main field of research is in the area of European Foreign Policy with a special focus on processes of institutionalization. Recent publications have dealt with the emerging EU diplomatic system and the role of bureaucracies in the European foreign policy process. Beside this she also supervises several PhD students and co-directs an Initial Training Marie Curie Research Network (2010-13) that investigates EU inter- and intra-institutional cooperation. She holds a PhD from Leiden University (1999). She studied history (Catholic Universtiy of Leuven, 1984), European Studies (College of Europe, Bruges, 1985) and International Relations (Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1989).

There are currently no vacancies at CES.

The quality of research at Maastricht University (UM) is subject to strict standards. Each six years, the research carried out within the faculties and research units at UM is assessed by an external review committee (ERC) applying methods and criteria described by the Strategy Evaluation Protocol (SEP). The SEP is established by KNAW (The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), NWO (The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) and UNL (association of universities in the Netherlands), and is used to assess all research conducted at Dutch public organizations, such as universities and institutes of NWO and KNAW.

The UM website has a blog section and all UM students and employees can get a blog account. The blog will be connected to your personal profile page and will generate extra personal exposure. It is a challenge to put your ideas out there, and share them within a larger network. Blogging on topics that interest you will allow you to expand your network and engage with other people who are interested in similar things. It is also an easy way to share your thoughts with a large audience. So take advantage of this new opportunity and publish on the UM website!

Blogs may cover a wide variety of subjects on research and education, general topics, or just what’s on your mind and interesting to share. They can present ongoing research projects, relevant publications or academic discussions. Did you attend an interesting lecture or conference or read a good book, share your review in a blog.

The Do's of Blogging at the UM website

Do: Be direct. Get to the point quickly.
Do: Be professional, but also be friendly.
Do: Write a post with insanely useful content. Always ask: ‘How can readers benefit from this?’
Do: Use examples and anecdotes to clarify your points.
Do: Offer original content that has not been published before.
Do: Find a catchy title.
Do: Proofread and double check. Preview all drafts before publishing. Read your post backwards and make sure to spell check.
Do: Use short sentences. Simplify complex words.
Do: Use images. Pictures, graphics, and video will make your blog more attractive. Make sure you only use content from others if you have permission and take care of the correct copyright.
Do: Use bullet points when possible. People love lists so use them.
Do: Ask your readers a lot of questions and listen to what they say then blog more about it.
Do: Blogs write your blog in English, Dutch or both languages.
Do: Blog regularly, your audience will get back and your network will grow.

The Don'ts of Blogging

Don't: Ramble with run-on sentences that just keep on dragging or lengthy texts.
Don't: Try to cover too many topics at once. Break up content into multiple entries if needed.
Don't: Use profanity or unprofessional language.
Don’t: Use other people’s stuff without permission and credit.
Don't: Combine too many style effects like bold, italic, or underline. Things become hard to read.
Don’t: Write purely for search engines. Too many keywords in your post is not good. Write for the reader and your SEO will do just fine.
Don’t: Give up. Building a blog takes time. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Don’t: Spend all your time ‘learning’ how to blog instead of actually writing for your blog.
Don’t: Use the blog for advertising, third party content, career events, internships, job adverts, surveys (thesis related), surveys (asking for student preferences/opinions), etc.

The editors of UM website reserve the right to remove a blog from the website. If your blog is removed the editor will approach you with the reason why, and will try to offer alternative publication outlets.

2013-2014

Christina Siaw, Anne Eckenroth and Dorina Andreeva, FREE POST? The Commission’s Assessment Criteria of Compatibility under Art.106(2)TFEU in the Postal Sector
Vilhelmiina Ihamäki, Eva van Ooij and Stefan van der Panne, Green Public Procurement in the European Union and the Use of Eco-Labels
Nina Ferreira, Hannah Mangel and Lisa Marx, The Influence of the Proposed International Procurement Instrument on Reciprocity in the Opening of Procurement Markets
Marisa Topp, Carolin Maug and Anne Hartl, Support Schemes for Policies of Energy Transition in the Light of EU State Aid Rules. The Dispute on the Surcharge Reduction Scheme of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act and its Influence on the New Community Guidelines on State Aid for Environmental Protection and Energy 2014-2020
Anna Grigorian, Dominika Hainová and Blagovesta Barbova, The Past, Present and Future of the Rescue and Restructuring Guidelines for Undertakings in Difficulty
Oliver Hateley, Friederike Neuhaus and Chris Hartsuike, What is all this talk about Airport infrastructure? The gradual encroachment of the State Aid rules in the Aviation Sector.

2012-2013

Paula Alegria Torrellas and Shiraz Dromi Zernitsky, Service concessions under the proposed Concessions Directive
Andrés Álvarez-Fernández and Peter Brandstrup, The access of third countries to the European Union's public procurement market
Georgi Batoev and Christian Schlosser, The advantages and disadvantages of the various procurement procedures
Amélie Habets and Laurence Temmerman Green Public Procurement - Analysis of current practices and possible future developments
Axel Frederik Hanzalik and Ondřej Šváb, The Defence & Security Directive 2009/81/EC - A comparative evaluation of the position of the individual firm within the procurement process in a European and international setting
Zuzanna Kurek and Anjena Narang, The development of state aid in the aviation sector – A case study on the low-cost airline Ryanair
Marcus Meyer and Christopher Mondschein, Regulatory approaches in the EU energy sector
Sarah Kim and Nefeli Filos, State Aid and the financial crisis - An assesment under the State aid rules for the banking sector

2011-2012

Andrea de Bie + Plamena Filipova, Development of Environmental Considerations within European Union Public Procurement
Luca Bolzonello + Emiliano Canali, The Opacity of Transparency: Issues of application of the principle of transparency to public contract awards falling outside the scope of Directive 18/2004
Cesulyte Egle + Simas Gerdvila, Green public procurement in the European Union: A case of Lithuania
David de Groot + Joël Gunthardt, Green Public Procurement: An EU and Member State Perspective
Kayleigh Brown + Tobias Tiemann, EU State Aid Policy and the EC-Airbus case
Luis Loras Oteo + Jan Hendrik Quandt, Challenges of International Government Procurement The Revised GPA from a European Perspective
Kevin Palmen + Mariusz Trajfacki, State Aid in the financial crisis
Maria Geilmann + Marta Ottanelli, The fourth Altmark criterion -Ensuring competition and transparency through Public Procurement procedures in SGEIs
Onno Heitling, The principle of transparency in public procurement
Orsolya Tokaji-Nagy + Sead Kadic, Directive 2009/81/EC on EU Defence and Security Procurement: A major step towards creating a truly EU Defence Equipment Market. To what extent has Directive 2009/81/EC been transposed into Hungarian and German national laws? A comparative analysis
Zsófia Halmágyi + Sabrina Fetea, State Aid and Public Service Broadcasting
Joanna Lenart + Ana Sofia Jacinto, State Aid and EU Cultural Policy: the Example of Films
Marianthi Spyropoulou + Victoria Stickelberger, State Aid and Air Transport: An Analysis of Case Law
Remi van de Calseijde + Joris Veenhuis, An Assessment of the ‘Exit Strategy’ of the Temporary Framework of State Aid Rules for Financial Institutions in the Light of the Financial and Economic Crisis

KNM is sinds 1 januari 2015 een verplicht onderdeel van het inburgeringsexamen voor inburgeraars die het Staatsexamen NT2 afleggen.

De module KNM bestaat uit 7 modules van 2 uur en bereidt je voor op deelname aan dit examen.

In het examen wordt je kennis getoetst over verschillende onderwerpen die belangrijk zijn voor een goede en snelle integratie in de Nederlandse maatschappij.

Onderwerpen zijn b.v. wat zijn typische Nederlandse gewoontes en tradities, maar ook hoe zijn de gezondheidszorg en het onderwijs in Nederland georganiseerd. Hoe vind je een woning en werk in Nederland? Hoe zit het politieke systeem in elkaar en wat zijn de belangrijkste gebeurtenissen en periodes in de Nederlandse geschiedenis.

Praktische info:

7 modules van 2 uur
Data en lestijden: volgen nog
Prijs: € 460,00
Vereist niveau Nederlands: minimaal A2

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