When it comes to the restitution of looted art, things are never black and white. The procedures are often lengthy and complex, and the dividing line between law and morals is paper-thin. Moreover, emotions and national sensitivities quickly come into play. Peter van den Brink knows the game like no other. In recent years, he has gained a reputation as the director who was able to trace nine lost canvases and bring them back to his Suermondt-Ludwig Museum, where they had hung before the war. Van den Brink will be a keynote speaker at the annual MACCH conference at the TEFAF on 18 March.

UM has hosted the first Global Citizenship Education Symposium on 1 March 2018, with more than a hundred students, lecturers and community stakeholders in attendance. The event was opened by Rector Rianne Letschert talking about how she has developed into a global citizen. Representatives from UNESCO and other organisations, charities and student initiatives invested in the topic gave speeches during a plenary session. As befits UM’s dedication to PBL and active problem-solving, the event concluded with a design thinking session to generate ideas on how to teach global citizenship competences.

The Netherlands’ annual Week van Het Geld (Week of Money) is inspired by the very worthy (and very Dutch) conviction that it’s never too soon to teach children about money. But what new financial lessons do the rest of us – undergraduates, academics, citizens, politicians - need to learn? Long before today’s schoolkids become adults, could the innovations of fintech and distributed-ledger blockchain transform our world for the better? Or is the market in cryptocurrency a “global speculative mania”, as the head of the Bank of England argued, and bitcoin a “noxious poison”, in the words of a billionaire investor? Should the Dutch, in particular, spot “the tulip mania of our era” in Ethereum, Ripple… and Bananacoin?

Emerging Markets is the latest specialisation in the bachelor’s programmes in International Business and Economics & Business Economics at Maastricht University. New as it may be, it is already popular. It has even spurred on the development of a follow-up programme to be launched next autumn: the Master in Economics and Strategy in Emerging Markets. “Emerging economies are changing the world radically. This programme will strengthen our position as an international knowledge centre.”

Two large pans of sauce simmer on the stove in the small kitchen of the Salvation Army. UM students Carlotta, Emma, Julia and Alice drain spaghetti, add some cream to the meat and take the grated cheese from the refrigerator. They are making pasta bolognese for the people who receive shelter and support here.

How do you prepare for life after university, or ‘working life’? Among other things, by participating in workshops at companies in the region through UM’s Master Yourself programme. And although the primary goal is personal development, it can sometimes result in an internship. Or a job. Maxime Heyndrickx (master's student in Public Policy & Human Development) shares his story.

The Maastricht MUMC+ hospital was faced with a peak in the number of patients at the end of March. More than 1100 young visitors came for a consultation, all with similar complaints: their stuffed toy had to be urgently diagnosed and treated. The bear doctors at the Teddy Bear Hospital (TBH) had their hands full.

They have both earned their stripes in the field of public health. These days Marten de Vries, emeritus professor of Social Psychiatry and Public Mental Health, is keeping busy with his foundation Mind Venture International. Klasien Horstman, professor of Philosophy of Public Health, runs projects all over the world, from the Malberg district in Maastricht to Tomsk in Siberia. Now they have joined forces to seek out tales of reconciliation in Colombia.

It began in 2015 in Shirati, a village in northwestern Tanzania. Medical student Victoria von Salmuth was interning at the local hospital, where a young mother had given birth to premature triplets. But the little babies weren’t growing: the mother wasn’t producing enough breastmilk because she had nothing to eat herself. Von Salmuth went out and bought fruit for her, and that was the start of the Shirati Food Programme. The goal is to provide one hot meal a day for women and children in the maternity ward. Now, two and a half years later, the newly graduated doctor recently returned to Shirati to see how the project is going.

Maastricht University and six other young European universities have agreed on a proposal to form an alliance as part of the European University initiative, first outlined by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2017.