Maastricht University Webmagazine June 2014

magazine 02/June 2014

Based in Europe, focused on the world. Maastricht University is a stimulating environment. Where research and teaching are complementary. Where innovation is our focus. Where talent can flourish. A truly student oriented research university.

www.maastrichtuniversity.nl

About education and research at Maastricht University

Van Blitterswijk’s entrepreneurial group

research arrives in Maastricht - p6

Employability Jeroen MerriĂŤnboer and Rolf van der Velden discuss work prospects of graduates - p20

On the

way to the

local state?

Interview with Klaartje Peters - p18

Contents

Further 04 Leading in Learning - Top position for Master in Public Policy and Human Development 06 Entrepreneurial research group - Clemens van Blitterswijk: Leading by example

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Nobiliary law

The High Council of Nobility will celebrate its 200th anniversary on 23 June. Professor René de Groot, will deliver the keynote address in the presence of King Willem-Alexander.

De Groot’s position on nobiliary law is anything but vague: one should refrain from overhauling such a historic institution.

“But should you choose to modernise it, you have to treat men and women equally.”

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Alum Anna Marie Frusch In 1974 – forty years ago, and two years before Maastricht University was even recognised as an institution - the first medical students started their studies at what was then the Rijksuniversiteit Limburg. These 49 adventurous scholars were the first to set foot in the new establishment and take part in its ground-breaking learning system, Problem-Based Learning (PBL). One of them was Anna Marie Frusch.

12 Publication - Hubert Coonen: University career for excellent teachers 16 TEFAF Oncology Chair - Hans Clevers: “Fountain of eternal youth lies in stem cell” 18 Inauguration - Klaartje Peters: On the way to the local state?

20 Debate - Jeroen Merriënboer and Rolf van der Velden discuss work prospects of graduates 24 Professor-Student - Professor André Klip and PhD student Maartje Krabbe 26 Off the job - Martin Paul: Does opera increase the chance of a heart attack?

28 International - Mundo supports training of Indonesian National Police 30 Research and society - Raymond Montizaan: Retiring later?

Think about it now 34 Alumni - An Jacobs: Ten-hut! One graduate’s journey to training the British army 36 University Fund - Peter Thijssen Fund established - News News 9, 14, 15, 23 and 38

Profile

Colophon

Education and research at Maastricht

• Maastricht Centre for Human Rights

Publisher: © Maastricht University

University is organised primarily on the

• Maastricht Centre for Taxation (MCT)

Chief Editor: Annelotte Huiskes

basis of faculties, schools and institutes.

• Maastricht European Private Law

Editorial Board: Luc Soete (President),

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences • Politics and Culture in Europe • Science, Technology and Society • Arts, Media and Culture • Globalisation, Transnationalism and Development Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences • School for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism (NUTRIM) • School for Cardiovascular Diseases (CARIM) • School for Public Health and Primary Care (CAPHRI) • School for Mental Health and Neuroscience (MHeNS) • School for Oncology and Developmental Biology (GROW) • School of Health Professions Education (SHE) Faculty of Humanities and Sciences • Department of Knowledge Engineering • International Centre for Integrated assessment and Sustainable development (ICIS) • Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) • University College Maastricht • Teachers Academy • Maastricht Science Programme

Institute (MEPLI)

Arvid Hoffmann, Jos Kievits, Hildegard Schneider,

• Maastricht Graduate School of Law

Sophie Vanhoonacker, Fancy van de Vorst.

• Montesquieu Institute Maastricht

Texts: Jos Cortenraad, Annelotte Huiskes,

Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience • Graduate School of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience • Clinical Psychological Science • Cognitive Neuroscience (CN) • Experimental Psychopathology (EPP) • Neuropsychology & Psychopharmacology • Work & Social Psychology • Maastricht Brain Imaging Centre (M-BIC) School of Business and Economics Economics (GSBE) • Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA) • Limburg Institute of Financial Economics (LIFE) • The Maastricht Academic Centre for Research in Services (MAXX) • Accounting, Auditing & Information • European Centre for Corporate Engagement (ECCE) • United Nations University - Maastricht vation and Technology (UNU-MERIT),

• Institute for Corporate Law, Governance and Innovation Policies (ICGI) • Maastricht Centre for European Law (MCEL)

Photography: Harry Heuts (p14), Ralf Mertens (p16,17), Istockphoto (p9,37,38), Sacha Ruland (cover, p2,3,4,6,7, 8,10,12,15,18,20,24,26,30,34), Maarten Simonis (p23), Roy Wanders (p9) Translations and English editing: Alison Edwards Graphic concept: Vormgeversassociatie BV, Hoog-Keppel Graphic design: Grafisch Ontwerpbureau Emilio Perez, Geleen Print: Pietermans Drukkerij, Lanaken (B) Maastricht University magazine is published in February, June and October. It is sent on demand to UM alumni and to external relations.

Editorial Office: Marketing & Communications Postbus 616, 6200 MD Maastricht T +31 43 388 5238 / +31 43 388 5222 E annelotte.huiskes@maastrichtuniversity.nl webmagazine.maastrichtuniversity.nl

Management Research Centre (MARC)

• Institute for Globalisation and

Research (METRO)

Graziella Runchina, Hans van Vinkeveen.

• Network Social Innovation (NSI)

Economic Research Institute on Inno-

• Institute for Transnational Legal

Loek Kusiak, Jolien Linssen, Hanna McLean,

• Graduate School of Business and

Faculty of Law International Regulation (IGIR)

Diana Dolmans, Fons Elbersen, Roy Erkens,

• The Maastricht Forensic Institute (tMFI)

Cover: Clemens van Blitterswijk, Jan de Boer and Pamela Habibovic.

With special thanks to Jean-Pierre Pilet.

ISSN: 2210-5212

Foundation • Social Innovation for Competitiveness, Organisational Performance and human Excellence (NSCOPE) • Marketing-Finance Research Lab

webmagazine.maastrichtuniversity.nl

Embracing the sciences For the first time, the executive board of the Maastricht city council now has a dedicated councillor for student and city. “We are a city that chooses to be a university city”, declares the new coalition agreement 2014-18.

This illustrates the progress Maastricht University (UM) has made in terms of local integration in recent years. When I was appointed rector two years ago, I gave an address in the St Janskerk about Maastricht UniverCity; about how Maastricht is home to more or less all it needs to become a true university city, in the vein of other university towns such as Leuven, Leiden and Heidelberg. If you’ll permit me to quote myself: “[T]he long-term future of this historic city is now that of a university city; and here I’m referring not just to Maastricht University but also to the Maastricht UMC+, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences and the many other national and international knowledge institutions in Maastricht... Together they form the core of Maastricht UniverCity. Particularly in these times of financial insecurity, with offices and shops standing vacant, the sustainable future of Maastricht is inextricably tied up with its knowledge and educational institutions and its international student and staff population.”

development is increasingly seen as part of a new, regional “smart specialisation strategy” aimed at strengthening the foundations of our economies.

For UM, this means dovetailing with local knowledge demands, as can be seen on the Health Campus in Maastricht and the Chemelot Campus in Sittard/ Geleen. It also means strengthening our research on health, materials, smart devices and nutrition. In a sense, this rectifies the “mistake” that was made when UM was founded, when the local demand for graduates and knowledge in the fields of chemistry and materials was not taken into account in the establishment of faculties and the development of expertise at the then Rijksuniversiteit Limburg.

As you can see in this magazine, UM’s efforts to catch up in this regard are in full swing. The infrastructure now available on both campuses plays an essential role, standing us in good stead to attract top scientists and develop scientific expertise in the short term.

Luc Soete Rector Magnificus, Maastricht University

This recognition by local politicians of UM’s contribution to the city runs parallel to the recognition in the region of UM as a Limburg university; for example, through the participation of UM and its partners in the Kennis-As Limburg project. It also runs parallel to the developments around Europe, where knowledge

Luc Soete

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Leading in Learning

Lutz Krebs

Top position for Master in Public Policy and Human Development

By Graziella Runchina

It is the only master’s programme in the world where graduates receive a degree from both the United Nations University (UNU) and Maastricht University (UM): Public Policy and Human Development (PP&HD). The programme was awarded the top position in this year’s guide to master’s programmes in the Netherlands, the Keuzegids Masters 2014, in the category Political Science and Public Administration. Director Lutz Krebs explains the success of ‘his’ programme.

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Krebs is, naturally, pleased with the top ranking in the Keuzegids - but not in the least surprised. “We’re happy, but had secretly been hoping for it a bit”, he admits. “We’ve always scored well on the quality of our lecturers, and they, after all, play a major role in the success of the programme. It will be clear to anyone who looks at our records that we attract the most experienced and engaging policymakers in their respective fields. This year we have 90 tutors for a group of 94 students, all of them with outstanding backgrounds. Take Dr Michael Cichon, former head of the Department of Social Protection at the International Labour Organisation, for instance, or Dr Hein de Haas, co-director of the International Migration Institute at Oxford University.”

These lecturers explicitly link the curriculum to current events. Krebs: “More than half of the courses are now linked to topical issues that UM and the UNU see as important today.

New topics that we’ve recently introduced range from ‘Regionalism and

Multi-level Governance’ to ‘Innovation Systems in the Global Economy’.”

Flexible and multidisciplinary The aim of the intensive, one-year PP&HD programme is to produce flexible and multidisciplinary graduates who can work as policymakers or policy analysts at the regional, national and especially international level.

“They typically end up in fields like social security, migration, trade and development, innovation, regional integration, and risk and vulnerability”, Krebs explains. “We place high demands on our students, but in principle all bachelor’s programmes offer toeholds for students keen to

join Public Policy and Human Development. What’s important is that the student is highly motivated and able to play different roles after graduation.

You have to be able to persuade a minister with a policy proposal, but also negotiate with major interest groups.”

Broad scope In addition to political, social and economic issues, the broad-based master’s programme pays special attention to statistical and econometric techniques. “Our graduates

often end up at international organisations, such as UNICEF, the World Bank and the United Nations, or in national ministries or national banks.

They’re the experts that institutions call on when they need additional expertise”, says Krebs. “For instance, we have a graduate in Spain who’s developing a programme to give the many young people there who are well educated, but unemployed, faster and better access to the labour market.”

International Launched in 2006, the PP&HD programme has the most international student population at UM. “Our students come from five continents and represent forty different countries.

A third of them already work in political policy and have around five years of professional experience before they start the programme.

The remainder are bachelor’s graduates from different fields.”

Despite the recession, recent years have shown that PP&HD graduates find suitable jobs relatively quickly.

“Last year more than 95% of our alumni were working”, says Krebs.

“On average they find good jobs within about three months something we’re very proud of.”

Iga Prokopowicz (24, student, Finland) “After graduating from European Studies I was looking for a high-quality programme in Maastricht with a more global scope.

I decided to opt for PP&HD, because in addition to its broad international perspective, it offers a wide range of skills and good teaching. What I like most is the programme’s truly multinational environment with students and lecturers from all over the world, which allows you to build great friendships and networks.”

Nikki Arya (25, student, India) “If you choose this highly recommended master’s programme, be prepared to devote your days and weekends to it! The courses are fast paced and you’re exposed to a plethora of information, case studies, articles and debates in a short period of time. It might seem overwhelming at first, but time management is the key. This oneyear programme provides you with a double degree from Maastricht University and United Nations - and is guaranteed to pay off in the long term!”

Lutz Krebs Lutz Krebs (1978) is a political scientist specialising in international relations and conflict research. He is the programme director for the MSc in Public Policy and Human Development at Maastricht University and United Nations University.

He also teaches at the School of Business and Economics, supervises bachelor’s, master’s and PhD students, and is the Dutch representative on the management committee of the European Network for Conflict Research.

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Entrepreneurial research group

Clemens van Blitterswijk

Leading by example

By Annelotte Huiskes

“I’ve spent most of my career with one foot in academia and one in the business world. And I want to do both of them well.” Clemens van Blitterswijk is indeed ambitious - not to mention successful - in both domains. He has received numerous awards, is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and was recently named the most entrepreneurial scientist in the country.

His research group, which specialises in bone and cartilage repair, is among the best in the world. This year, the group will be relocating to Maastricht University as the MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine.

“My mentor Klaas de Groot, a professor of biomaterials, laid the foundations for this research group more than 30 years ago”, Van Blitterswijk concludes, having spent

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an enthusiastic hour and a half talking about the world of biomaterials and tissue regeneration. “He’s our patriarch.”

Van Blitterswijk studied cell biology at Leiden University, obtaining his PhD in the early 1980s for his work on ceramic ossicles, small bones in the middle ear. De Groot was on the assessment committee. “He’s had a big impact on me, not only as a scientist but also as an entrepreneur. I’m quite stubborn, but I follow his advice. He has a unique personality: incredibly accomplished without being egotistical.”

High adrenaline level In the late 1960s de Groot was one of dozens of researchers worldwide working with biomaterials. Their work laid the foundations for today’s hip replacements and dental implants. He was also a progressive man who, together with Van Blitterswijk’s supervisor, Professor Grote, founded his own ceramics company back when this was highly unusual

for scientists. “They set an example for me”, says Van Blitterswijk. “Klaas, another colleague and I set up our own company, called HC Implants. That was my first serious company, but not the last. IsoTis was originally founded in collaboration with Leiden University, but later became a successful independent company with 150 employees and a listing on the stock exchange.”

It was an exciting time, and a new world of bankers and venture capitalists opened up to him. “It’s great; you work with a very high level of adrenaline. But around 2002 I noticed that I was starting to cannibalise my scientific knowledge and I had to make a choice. I came back to academia and set up a research group in Twente, where I’ve been a part-time professor since 1996.” IsoTis has since been sold to an American company, but his present lab continues to pursue this line of research.

Prizes galore At once delighted and proud, Van Blitterswijk reports that one of his staff, Lorenzo Moroni, has just won the Jean Leray Award, a prestigious prize awarded by the European Society for Biomaterials to scientists under the age of 40.

They also award a career prize: the George Winter Award, previously won by both Klaas de Groot and Van Blitterswijk himself. “I won the Jean Leray in 1987, last year another one of my staff did, Pamela Habibovic, and now Lorenzo has won it too. I don’t mean to brag, but this is very special; it says something about the quality of our research group.

The previous winners are now all world leaders in their fields. And we’ve come full circle: Klaas de Groot was the man of the first hour, I was second and now I’m passing on the baton to Pamela and Jan de Boer. They’ll keep on pushing the boundaries with their own groups in Maastricht. Now we’re going for that third George Winter Award.”

Looking back Materials research has taken off over the last 50 years.

“In the 1960s it was already considered a win if materials weren’t encapsulated or didn’t work their way out like a splinter from your finger. Later materials were so friendly the body accepted and grew around them. For instance, in the 1980s Klaas developed synthetic biomaterial: a ceramic that, like bone, is made of calcium phosphate. By applying a thin layer of the synthetic bone as a plasma spray to an implant, the implant could grow together in the body with the real bone. There must be millions of people walking around now with a plasma-sprayed artificial hip.”

The late 1980s saw the advent of bioactive materials; living materials that interact with the body. IsoTis arose from the idea that live bone tissue could be grown on a ceramic plate using stem cells from the patient’s leg. “Culturing cells was no problem, but getting them to do what we wanted in the body - making bone - proved to be more difficult.”

Eureka

The quest to find out how stem cells can be made to produce bone led to renewed experimentation with materials.

Materiomics developed as one of the two research lines of his lab and a spin-off, Materiomics BV, has been launched.

“In 2004 we discovered - quite by accident - that the special surface of certain materials can prompt cells in the body to make bone. That was a Eureka moment.

The surface structure acts as a sort of Braille that says to the cell, ‘make bone’. We knew it worked, but we didn’t know how. In 2010 we were able to cultivate surface structures in a seed tray that made the cells produce bone. Now we’re trying to show that the principle of these ‘instructive scaffolds’ works broadly; not only for bone replacements, but also for things like breast implants or vascular prosthesis.”

Klaas de Groot and Clemens van Blitterswijk

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Entrepreneurial research group

Lorenzo Moroni, Clemens van Blitterswijk, Pamela Habibovic and Jan de Boer

The second research line revolves around the cultivation of complex tissues. Twenty years ago tissue engineers could make simple tissues with a single cell type, such as cartilage or surface skin. “But most tissues in our bodies are complex; they have blood vessels and nerve tissue.

We’re now trying to grow several tissues simultaneously.

Together with researchers at Harvard we were the first group to cultivate blood vessels with muscle tissue, and five years later we did this with bone tissue too. If you ask our team what they’re most proud of, it’s that we’ve been around so long and yet are still doing such novel things.

We’re still leading the charge.”

Venture capital The arrival of the tissue regeneration research group confirms the appeal of the idea behind the Kennis-As Limburg investment programme for researchers. The MERLN Institute will help to shape the Inscite institute, and there are opportunities for collaboration with both the Health Campus and the Chemelot Campus. “With an academic hospital nearby, DSM and the ambitions of the Province as set out in Kennis-As, this is an ideal environment for us. And it provides my staff with new opportunities for expansion and career prospects.

We’re an entrepreneurial group and it’s important to us that our technology ultimately reaches patients, be it through our own spin-offs or other companies.”

Enterprising professor Van Blitterswijk will dedicate half his time to his time professorial chair, and the remaining half to his position as director of the LSP Health Economics Fund (LSP HEF)

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in Amsterdam. “This fund invests solely in technologies that help to curb rising healthcare costs. Which is important, otherwise healthcare will become unaffordable. This role brings everything together for me: I’ve started companies myself and developed ideas with my research group. LSP HEF now gives me the chance to fund other people’s ideas and contribute to the quality of healthcare. We’ve raised €112 million so far, which we can use for 15 investments.”

Amsterdam, Maastricht - where will he live? “At the moment I live on a beautiful farm in Friesland, where my wife and one of my two daughters breed horses.

If we can find as nice a place in Limburg we’ll move, because the countryside here is equally magnificent.

I can see it happening - but until then I’ll be spending a lot of time travelling and in hotels.”

Clemens van Blitterswijk Clemens van Blitterswijk (1957), professor of Tissue Engineering, is one of the most frequently cited Dutch scientists in the field of materials science. He is author or co-author of around 386 peer-reviewed journal articles, and inventor or co-inventor on over 100 patent applications.

Van Blitterswijk has received a number of prestigious international awards and was elected to the KNAW in 2012.

He combines his professorship with his role as Founding Partner of the LSP Health Economics Fund.

First European Presidential debate a major success

The First European Presidential debate took place in Maastricht on 28 April.

In front of an audience of 700 young people, the candidates for the presidency of the European Commission battled it

out on key issues on the future of Europe.

This was the first time that such a broad audience of European voters had the chance to hear the candidates explain their policies in detail. The debate ignited public opinion on various social media, particularly Twitter: the 90 minute

debate generated 40,000 tweets, with the hashtag #EUDebate2014 “top trending” in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Austria, Italy and Paris.

This historic debate was unique, not only because it brought the main candidates for the Commission Presidency together for the first time in a televised debate, but also because of its focus on youth issues and questions asked by students.

It is hoped that the debate will ignite

young people’s interest in the European elections and encourage them to vote in May. Students were involved in initiating, planning and hosting the debate, and thousands of young people in every EU member state were invited to submit questions through their universities as well as the League of Young Voters.

Euronews broadcast the debate live in 13 languages around the world, covering 415 million homes in 156 countries.

Koos van Haasteren appointed member of the Supervisory Board Minister Jet Bussemaker appointed Koos van Haasteren to the Maastricht University’s Supervisory Board for a period of four years, effective as of 1 April 2014.

Van Haasteren is vice president of SABIC Europe. He succeeds Jeroen Kremers,

who stepped down from the Supervisory Board due to his busy work schedule.

Van Haasteren (Leiden, 1960) has been employed by SABIC since 2002. He has held various managerial positions at the company and was deployed to the company’s headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 2008 to 2012.

From 1987 to 2002, he worked for various business units at DSM. He started his

career at KPMG after graduating from Erasmus University Rotterdam with a degree in Business Economics.

In addition to Van Haasteren, the Supervisory Board consists of Truze Lodder (chair), Ursula Nelles and Renk Roborgh.

Small amount of alcohol harms intestinal barrier Even a small amount of alcohol - the equivalent of one or two glasses of beer or wine - has an adverse effect on the intestinal barrier. This emerged from research by Elhaseen Elamin, a PhD candidate from Sudan at the Maastricht UMC+. Elamin studied the effects of a small amount of alcohol consumption on a group of volunteers. He found that

the permeability of the colon and small intestine increased, thereby increasing the risk of bacterial infections and diseases such as colon cancer and fatty liver disease. While it is widely known that alcohol can have a harmful effect on the body, the consequences of moderate alcohol use (one or two glasses per day) are less well known.

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Nobiliary law

René de Groot (with thanks to the ‘Museum aan het Vrijthof’)

“Unequal position of women in nobiliary law is hard to justify”

By Hans van Vinkenveen

The High Council of Nobility will celebrate its 200th anniversary on 23 June.

René de Groot, Maastricht professor of Comparative Law and International Private Law, will deliver the keynote address in the presence of King Willem-Alexander. De Groot’s position on nobiliary law is anything but vague: one should refrain from overhauling such a historic institution. “But should you choose to modernise it, you have to treat men and women equally.”

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Clad tastefully in a tweed suit, waistcoat and bow tie, with measured words and dignified diction, De Groot could almost be noble himself. But by no means is he high-born, he explains in his usual cheerful tone, not in the least perturbed. No, that’s not something he loses sleep over.

He may not be noble, but he is certainly held in high regard. Not everyone gets to speak in the presence of the king.

The invitation came, he thinks, because he is the only professor in the Netherlands to publish regularly on nobiliary law. Here, too, it speaks in his favour that he himself has no vested interest.

“A lot of people get involved in debates about amending the law because it might benefit themselves or their children.” That De Groot supervised the PhD of the current secretary of the High Council of Nobility probably didn’t hurt either.

Institutionalised inequality The High Council’s anniversary coincides with the 200th anniversary of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This is no coincidence. The majority of the Dutch nobility was created in 1814 by King Willem I, who felt that no sensible kingdom could do without. In De Groot’s view, reflecting now and then on the roots of the modern Dutch state is no bad thing. He is positive, too, about the royal house. “It has a lot to do with the family. I think the Oranjes have played their roles well.”

Nobiliary law, according to De Groot, should primarily be seen as protecting the status of the nobility. Besides the right to a title and a coat of arms, it has little substance. “Nobiliary law is a historical institution and it’s nice to

cherish that, just as we do the royal house.” So far, so good. “But then a curious thing happened”, he goes on, as though reading aloud from a thriller. “In 1994 an attempt was made to revamp the nobiliary law.

But is that really possible? Can you modernise a historical institution that necessarily entails built-in, institutionalised inequality?”

Ominously: “Well, the legislature thought so. And therein lies the rub.”

Male line After much debate, the legislature agreed on two amendments. Children born out of wedlock and adopted children would henceforth be allowed to inherit titles - but only through the male line. “This was an improvement, but the elephant in the room is the question of equal treatment for men and women. Shouldn’t a child also be able to inherit a title from the mother’s line?” This was rejected on the grounds that it would result in too many nobles. “For me, there are big question marks as to whether that’s a convincing argument.”

The issue is by no means unique to the Netherlands; other countries are today also grappling with how to treat women equally in their nobiliary laws. In his address, De Groot will compare Dutch nobiliary law with that in other European states. “I doubt I’ll be able to get around this issue.”

What complicates matters is that succession to the throne has indeed become gender neutral. “If Beatrix had had a younger brother, he would have been first in line for the throne.

But if Willem-Alexander were to have a son, he’d be fourth in line.” This law,

then, reflects the spirit of the times.

“My position is that if you want to maintain a historical institution, you shouldn’t alter it. But if you do decide to modernise nobiliary law, you have to give men and women equal rights.

Giving it a facelift here but not there is hard to justify. That’s why we have to keep on asking the equality question.”

Fancy names De Groot’s interest in nobiliary law stems from his main work in the law regarding surnames. “Questions like these are often pertinent when it comes to fancy names. People don’t sue over whether they can be called Jones or Smith. But if it’s Jones or Furst von Furstenberg, that’s a different story. After all, with the fancy name might come a fancy title. If a name evokes historical memories or involves a special status, people are more willing to go to court.” There are matters of greater importance in life, he readily admits. “I’m more likely to lie awake at night over whether someone should be allowed to become a Dutch citizen than whether he can belong to the nobility.”

In any event, the new nobiliary law adopted in 1994 will prevent many noble families from dying out.

De Groot laughs: “We don’t have to worry about that anymore.”

René de Groot René de Groot (1951) is professor of Comparative Law and International Private Law at Maastricht University’s Faculty of Law. He is a world-renowned expert in the field of nationality law.

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Publication

University career for excellent teachers!

By Hans van Vinkenveen

The balance at universities is out of kilter and it is teaching that ends up paying for it.

This is the conclusion of a comparative international study by Hubert Coonen, professor at Maastricht University’s Teachers Academy. The culprit: the ‘reputation mechanism’ of research. Teaching must be valued more highly, according to Coonen.

To this end, he recommends the introduction of a professorship for excellent teachers.

His book is a wake-up call. A warning: watch out universities, don’t neglect your teaching. That it’s come to this is remarkable, Coonen explains: “Not so long ago the university was primarily an educational institution. The clue is in the Dutch word for professor, hoogleraar - the highest position in the academic ranks literally means ‘high teacher’.

Professors are first and foremost teachers!” Nowadays teaching is often seen as an irksome, additional task: “The mind set has completely changed.”

How did this happen? As Coonen sees it, the reason is clear: the almost singular emphasis on research. “Research has become the dominant reputation mechanism from which universities and researchers derive their profile and status.

Let me be clear: there’s nothing wrong with this in itself.

Universities are dynamic and creative organisations at the very top of our knowledge structure. Research has enriched our knowledge and quality of life. But the balance has taken a hit.” And this, he reports in his study Onderwijs op de universiteit (‘University education’), has become the prevailing view everywhere - in Europe, the United States and the OECD countries.

Equality of tasks Coonen calls for the balance to be restored between the

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university’s core tasks: teaching as well as research. More attention must be paid to teaching and to the careers of excellent teachers - and not without reason. “In recent decades the number of students has exploded. They represent a fantastic talent pool, and are entitled to the best education and the best teachers. Over time, this translates into innovation and entrepreneurship, and society reaps the benefits. In fact, top-quality, intensive education for the 250,000 students at Dutch universities could end up being more beneficial for both science and society than exclusive concentration on the cream of the crop.”

His book makes a series of recommendations to improve the position of teaching at universities. Steps have already been taken in the right direction: universities are obliging lecturers to hone their teaching skills in the form of the basic teaching certificate, and some are well on their way towards a senior qualification. But the bar must be raised further still, Coonen says. Countries like Australia, England and Sweden are good examples of how this push can result in better teaching levels.

Teaching professors Excellent teachers should have career prospects right up to the post of professor, where teaching and research will remain closely linked. This is one of his key proposals.

Hubert Coonen

“This will allow the university to send the message that it aims to excel in both core tasks.” Teaching professors will conduct research on the development of university education, focusing on academic quality, innovation capacity and digital pedagogy, such as the integration of international learning communities into the educational concept.

Coonen finds it surprising that Dutch universities do little research on the quality of their own teaching: “We’re used to anchoring our work in scientific argumentation and, wherever possible, scientific evidence. Yet this is rare when it comes to improving the quality of university education and holding it to account.”

Maastricht University is an exception. Coonen, having worked at various universities, says this without bias.

Its major draw card, Problem-Based Learning - “a big hit in education” - has been scientifically underpinned from the outset. Other universities should take note. “There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all model”, Coonen concedes.

“But for a teaching model to succeed, it needs a scientific basis. As the driving force behind educational innovation, teaching professors can take the lead in this.”

Balanced reputation mechanisms Developing, implementing and evaluating good academic education takes time. Universities must therefore permit a better balance in the time staff devote to teaching and to research, Coonen says. The responsibility lies with the

government and the university boards. “They have to show that they value teaching by explicitly acknowledging and rewarding staff who excel as teachers. You can facilitate this by introducing a teaching career in academia and by investing in the study and development of innovative educational concepts. This would bring the university’s reputation mechanisms back into balance.”

These recommendations are already being taken up, Coonen notes. The policy departments of the Ministry for Education and the European Union are taking them on board, and the Association of Dutch Universities organised a national conference on the theme with almost 200 participants. His wake-up call has worked. “The key now is to keep the topic on the agenda and ensure that university teaching gets the attention it deserves.”

Hubert Coonen Hubert Coonen (1951) is professor of Evidence-Based Professional Development of Teachers at the Maastricht University Teachers Academy. He is a former professor and dean of the University of Twente, and served as a Crown-appointed member of the national Board of Education. His book ‘Onderwijs op de universiteit: Verkennende studie naar de professionalisering en loopbaanperspectieven van universitair onderwijspersoneel’ was published in 2013.

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Maastricht University in the rankings Keuzegids 2014: 14 UM master’s programmes in first place Fourteen UM programmes came in first place and 28 programmes in the top three in the 2014 Keuzegids Masters, a ranking of master’s programmes at Dutch universities. The Higher Education Information Centre (CHOI) has identified two master’s

as top-ranking programmes in the Netherlands: Management of Learning (82 points) and Information and Network Economics (76 points). The following programmes took out first place:

Management of Learning; European Public

Affairs; Public Policy and Human Development; Forensic Psychology; Economic Studies; Information and Network Economics; Financial Economics; Econometrics and Operations Research; Mental Health; Arts-Klinisch Onderzoeker (PhysicianClinical Investigator); European Public Health; Artificial Intelligence; the Research Master in Health Sciences; and the Research Master in European Studies.

UM’s performance in the Keuzegids continues to improve year after year.

Fourteen of the 41 UM programmes assessed came in first place this year, compared to 8 of 34 in 2013 and 6 of 34 in 2012.

QS ‘Top 50 Under 50’: UM the best young university in Europe Maastricht University is the best performing young university in Europe.

In the third annual QS ‘Top 50 Under 50’ ranking, Maastricht University climbed from seventh to sixth place. This special ranking for young universities first appeared in 2012 to indicate which universities are likely to be among the world’s top in the future. First place in this year’s ‘Top 50 Under 50’ went to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). The ranking is derived from the QS World University Rankings, in which UM ranks 121st.

“Maastricht University is the top performing European university in this ranking”, confirms Ben Sowter, head of division of the QS Intelligence Unit.

“One of the most international

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continental European institutions, Maastricht has established itself as an attractive university and a prestigious centre of academic excellence for both domestic and international students and faculty.”

UM came in 15th place in the Times Higher Education’s (THE) list of the top 25 most international universities worldwide. This list is based on the ‘international outlook’ indicator from the THE World University Rankings, which takes into account the number of international students at a given university, the percentage of international staff and the proportion of research papers published with a coauthor from at least one other country.

THE ‘100 Under 50’: UM in top 10 for second year running Maastricht University (UM) retained sixth place for the second consecutive year in the Times Higher Education’s (THE) ‘100 Under 50’ ranking of universities worldwide. Last year, UM jumped from 19th to 6th place in this special ranking for universities established fewer than fifty years ago. It also climbed into the top 100 universities overall, placing 98th in the 2013/14 THE World University Ranking.

The top five positions in the ‘100 Under 50’ are held by Asian universities, with the exception of Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in

second place. UM scored particularly well on international outlook, with its high percentage of international staff and students.

“We are extremely pleased that Maastricht University has maintained its position

among the world’s top ten young universities. This is evidence of our vigour and competitiveness even as powerful young institutes are emerging, many of them outside Europe”, says the UM president Professor Martin Paul.

Genetic variation explains disposition for extreme obesity People who are extremely obese are capable of losing weight, but often fail to maintain their new weight. That requires a long-term change in eating habits and other behaviour. Researchers from Maastricht University and the Maastricht UMC+ have found genetic variations that might explain why some people struggle to let go of their original eating patterns and behaviour. Analysis of the genes of 30 people with extreme obesity revealed that they are more likely than others to be carriers of certain protocadherin genes. Protocadherins are proteins responsible for the connections between nerve cells. The variants now

linked to obese people appear to be associated with reduced functioning of protocadherins in the brain, which may hinder the switch needed in the brain to effect behavioural change. The results of this research were published in the journal Genes and Nutrition.

As first author Edwin Mariman, professor of Functional Genetics, explains: “Research has demonstrated that severe obesity is not just a consequence of lifestyle but also of genetic disposition.

However, this genetic disposition is poorly understood at present.”

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TEFAF Oncology Chair

Hans Clevers

“Fountain of eternal youth lies in stem cell”

By Loek Kusiak

This year Hans Clevers will hold the TEFAF chair in Maastricht, just one of the many honours he has received for his pioneering research on intestinal cancer.

As president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Clevers cautions against the continuous cutbacks in research funding for Dutch universities. A new generation of scientists is being nipped in the bud, he warns.

“The next session will have to be more interactive”, the stem cell researcher says after his first masterclass in March. “The students sat at the back of the lecture hall and seemed a bit intimidated by the academics at the front. That didn’t do much for the discussion.”

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The masterclass marked the start of Clevers’s custodianship of the TEFAF Oncology Chair. Part of Maastricht University’s GROW research institute and funded by The European Fine Art Fair, it is bestowed each year on outstanding professors in cancer research.

“This chair is an ideal platform to communicate the latest insights in cancer research”, Clevers says. “And between all my administrative tasks, it gives me the chance to return to the lecture hall for a nice exercise in knowledge transfer. For scientists, master’s students are the most interesting group.”

Tissue culture Clevers is professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Utrecht.

He has also been president of the KNAW since 2012 and has received many distinctions for his research on intestinal cancer. He described the molecular signalling pathways that are disturbed in cancer - a disease caused by abnormalities in our DNA and discovered a protein specific to stem cells in the intestine. In the laboratory he then managed to culture living tumour tissue, including the surrounding healthy tissue, from individual stem cells. If that wasn’t enough, he also discovered the stem cell of the liver.

“We can now make cancer cells outside the body grow into tumours, just like cuttings from a plant. We’re identifying the DNA code of these tumours and, based on the cultured tumour tissue, hope to be able to determine which drugs will be most effective in treating them.”

The manufactured tumours are stored in biomedical databases and offer unprecedented opportunities in the quest to cure cancer. This research is spurred on by the new culturing technique, as well as collaboration between specialists in Clevers’s ‘Dream Team’, which has received $6 million in funding from the international initiative Stand Up to Cancer.

Testing drugs “We’re collecting tissue from 240 patients with intestinal cancer, pancreatic cancer or prostate cancer”, Clevers explains. “We put this material in culture so that it multiplies, and we can identify which DNA abnormalities are lurking in the tumour for every patient. For each type of tumour and DNA change, we can then test

thousands of substances and combinations of them at once. So we no longer have to test the drugs on patients, which means we can avoid the nasty side effects of chemotherapy.”

These are the first steps towards personalised cancer treatment and tissue regeneration, which, Clevers predicts, will do away with the need for donors.

“To treat pneumonia you also put tissue in culture to find out which drug is needed for which bacteria. In the

future we’ll be able to do this for cancer too. That’s how simple it will be.

Sometimes I joke that the fountain of eternal youth lies in the stem cell.”

But Clevers qualifies predictions that in 20 years’ time cancer will be fatal for just 10% of patients. “The pharmaceutical industry is launching more and more magic bullets on the market that can repair abnormalities in DNA. So I share other people’s enthusiasm, but if we can reduce the percentage of fatalities to even 25% we’ll already be doing well.”

Budget losses As president of the KNAW (established in 1808), Clevers holds the most important post in which “a full-blown scientist can have a say in how science should develop in the Netherlands”. In a discussion with the state secretary, Clevers voiced his concerns about the drop in scientific research funding. “Young people have fewer and fewer options and prospects for the future. The cutbacks have already meant the loss of 2000 study places, faculties that still have their own budget for PhD positions are few and far between, and external funding is drying up too. We risk losing an entire generation of young researchers. I’m also angry at the CPB, the national agency for economic policy analysis.

It balances the books for the government, but attaches no value to science.

It regards this sector as an ‘expense’.

As a result, political parties wanting to invest in science are penalised.”

Clevers encourages universities to band together against the cuts. “The KNAW recommends that a sector plan be drawn up for each discipline, but the universities haven’t taken this on board.

When they insist on acting autonomously and don’t take a national perspective, they’re easy to play off against one another. That worries me.”

Meanwhile, Clevers is thinking about his next masterclasses in Maastricht. “In the past I’ve collaborated with Peter Peters, professor of Nanobiology and a good friend. We’ll intensify this collaboration in the coming masterclasses. To make it more interactive for students, we’re thinking about organising workshops on career planning and publishing in journals.”

Hans Clevers and Luc Soete

Hans Clevers Hans Clevers (1957) studied medicine and biology, obtaining his PhD in 1985 from the University of Utrecht. He was professor of Immunology at the University Medical Centre Utrecht from 1991 to 2002, and has been professor of Molecular Genetics since 2002.

He also served as director of the KNAW’s Hubrecht Institute and has been president of the KNAW since 2012.

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Inauguration

On the way to the local state?

By Hans van Vinkeveen

Give municipalities more powers and the right to collect taxes, and you increase the likelihood that they’ll succeed with the additional care responsibilities imposed on them, says Klaartje Peters, endowed professor of Local and Regional Management.

This would be a step towards the ‘local state’. But is The Hague really willing to cede some of its powers? “Organisations are not good at undercutting themselves.”

As of 1 January 2015, the municipalities will have additional healthcare responsibilities, including youth care and longterm care for disabled people. There is no shortage of unease: these are new tasks for the municipalities, and some question whether they have the appropriate expertise. Moreover, they will certainly have to contend with severely limited funding. Can this possibly go well? “It’s fair to say that no one knows”, Peters admits. “The situation can probably be attributed to the cutbacks, but in any event it’s going to be a challenge for the municipalities.”

Almost an impossible one, in fact, for small municipalities.

Peters points out that they will have to collaborate with neighbouring municipalities and numerous social parties, but no one knows exactly what form this collaboration should take. The risk is that city councils will lose even more influence over decision making, and large care organisations will get a large piece of the pie. “These powerful clubs, which often cover entire regions, can put small municipalities on the spot. This is what our services cost, period.” Can local civil servants really serve as a counterweight to all these parties? “That’s a real concern.”

More policymaking power Large municipalities will be better able to cope with external parties. But at the same time, their healthcare problems are larger and more complex, often involving

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hundreds of families in which poverty, school problems and criminality coexist. “In large municipalities many departments are involved in a single case, but these services are often compartmentalised. The hope is that under the new system these efforts will become more integrated. A big challenge is whether the municipalities will manage to put the client first.”

In Peters’s view, to increase the likelihood of success the municipalities need more policymaking power. In her inaugural address ‘The local state’, she asks whether the local council approaches the national government in importance. The answer is no - at least not yet. The councils are chained to The Hague in terms of legislation and regulation, and - given their limited powers to collect their own taxes - in terms of revenue too. Ultimately, this will not be financially sustainable. “The only way forward is for the local authorities to gradually begin collecting their own taxes.”

Local autonomy This development towards local autonomy is the only way to change the power relationship between national and local governments, says Peters, who describes herself as a researcher with a ‘power perspective’. “Whoever has the money has the power. Having your own source of income is very different to receiving pocket money and having little freedom to spend it at your own discretion.” This will be the

Klaartje Peters

big question of the future: will the ruler, in this case the state, cede some of its own powers? Peters will have to see it to believe it. “The government is a divided power.

A minister or the cabinet might promise the municipalities more freedom, but what will the House of Representatives do if big differences arise from one municipality to the next?” Moreover, public servants at the national level would have to cut into their own bread and butter.

“Organisations are not good at undercutting themselves.”

The main question for the public is whether the transfer of responsibilities will improve or harm the quality of care.

This, too, no one knows. Peters warns that there will certainly be less money to go around. There is also justifiable concern about whether civil servants can really assess which specialist help an individual needs. “The uncertainty alone can be awful. Imagine that after years of searching you’ve finally found the right help for your severely disabled child. The last thing you want to do is disrupt this.” It is hoped, however, that because municipalities are closer to their populations, they will be better able to judge who needs what care. “It’s easier for a municipality to talk things over with the client: what can you still do yourself? Can your children help out?” In this sense, the transfer or powers fits well with the notion of a transition from welfare state to ‘participation society’. “This works better with a local government that takes the lead.”

Nice words Peters believes that more municipal discretion would be good for local democracy. Through local elections, citizens would be able to have a say in important areas like healthcare. “You get more intense local politics, but the parties would have to become more outspoken.

Vote for us and the well-off will pay more for the health-

care needs of other residents, that sort of thing. At present, local election campaigns tend to rely on blah blah like ‘we’ll make sure everyone gets the care they need’.”

This, however, remains some way off: “For now, the Dutch state is the boss and the local council trails far behind.”

Klaartje Peters Klaartje Peters (1969) is endowed professor of Local and Regional Management at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University. Her PhD thesis, ‘Shared power’ (‘Verdeelde macht’), focused on power relations in Dutch public administration.

She published a much-discussed book on the provincial council in the Netherlands, ‘The bloated government’ (‘Het opgeblazen bestuur’), in 2007, and will soon complete her new book on the ‘purple’ cabinets between 1994 and 2002. Peters is also chair of the Maastricht Audit Office.

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Debate

Jeroen MerriĂŤnboer and Rolf van der Velden

A new educational revolution in Maastricht?

By Jos Cortenraad

The Dutch labour market does not look particularly rosy for graduates in the coming years. According to a recent report by the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA), not even one in ten graduates seems to have particularly good prospects. The economic crisis is partly to blame, but universities would do well to consider whether their graduates meet the demands of the market. How are we doing in terms of employability? The researchers and professors Jeroen van MerriĂŤnboer and Rolf van der Velden are not in complete agreement.

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The report paints a bleak picture.

University and higher vocational education graduates have difficulties finding jobs that suit their education level, often settling for temporary contracts and low salaries. Graduates of psychology, communication science and cultural studies are most affected. There are nuances, however: “Ultimately things work out fine for most people”, says Van der Velden, ROA researcher and professor of Education and the Professional Career. “The economic crisis blows over, the labour market improves.

Then we see that a good education is still always the best basis for a good career. The labour market needs specialists with sound knowledge of their own field. Especially these days, with technology developing so rapidly.

And not only technology: society is changing too, things that once seemed certain are in flux. Globalisation is ongoing, internationalisation commonplace. Look at Maastricht, a student city with more than 40 nationalities.

This is also reflected in the business sector. For me, there’s no doubt about the permanent and increasing demand for highly educated knowledge workers.”

Changes Van Merriënboer, professor of Learning and Instruction and research director of the School of Health Professions Education, shares this confidence. But in his view, education is not keeping pace with the changes. “To succeed in working life, employability and the capacity to innovate are essential.

We have to ask the question whether

education - including university education - adequately addresses this”, he says. “We need to think about what we want to teach and how. Specialist knowledge is fine.

But it’s no longer enough to have

programmes that focus solely on a particular field. Take radiology, for example. Twenty years ago, radiologists had one image to assess: the X-ray. Then came the CT scan and the MRI, and now we can explore the human body right down to molecular level. Brains Unlimited here in Maastricht is a good example. But assessing a scan on a computer screen is an entirely different thing: today’s radiologists see a 3D image, receive a lot more information. The field has completely changed, which means the traditional training is no longer adequate. Of course, people learn on the job, study programmes are modified and there are lifelong learning trajectories. The point is that the developments are so fast. Purely content knowledge will never be enough.”

Borders According to Van Merriënboer, universities and higher vocational education institutes pay too little attention to interdisciplinarity.

“Medical students, for example, could pick up certain competences from other fields. Doctors today have to deal with ICT, legal issues, economics, international insights.

People don’t spend enough time looking beyond the walls of their own faculties. That’s why I’m a proponent of project-based, interfaculty education using real-life cases that

involve different fields, as we’re seeing more and more in Maastricht.

Students then learn competences that help them keep up with technological developments. They think differently, consider issues from different angles. I think this makes them more open to developments during their careers.”

Intersection This approach also boosts innovation, the researcher continues. “As we know, innovations arise at the intersection of different disciplines. New treatments for cancer, for example, bring together medical knowledge, technology, ICT and culture. This is why I’m calling for academic curricula to pay greater attention to other disciplines. Students end up with more knowledge and greater employability.”

Van der Velden nods, but tentatively.

He is wary of the call for more generalist programmes.

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Debate

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with broad academic and collaborative competences. We’ve laid a good basis for this in Maastricht with Problem-Based Learning. It would be nice if we could break down the faculty borders even more, as is already happening in various research programmes but also at UCM, in the PREMIUM honours programme and in the Science

“Specific knowledge has to remain the priority. Our research shows that this is what the labour market requires. Employers are not keen on employees who are sort of good at many things. And students need something to hold onto, a tutor, a clear curriculum. You don’t develop broad academic skills, such as analytical thinking and learning to learn, without the content. Which is not to say I immediately disagree with Jeroen. The research reveals a growing need for competences like entrepreneurship and the capacity to innovate, not to mention language skills and a more international orientation. But I’m also not in favour of further differentiation; I prefer to see broad-based bachelor’s programmes that allow students to automatically come into contact with other disciplines. They can then specialise at the master’s level.”

Factory. It’s possible; and it’s not down to the students. The problem lies with the tutors, with the structure. It’s always assumed that the curricula are jam-packed, that there’s not enough time. I think there is room in the curricula - it’s just a matter of will. Once upon a time, Maastricht embraced a new system that attracts students from all over the world. If we don’t continue to invest in the development of the competences that the labour market demands of our students, this revolution will fizzle out.”

Collaboration Van Merriënboer nods; he largely shares Van der Velden’s vision.

“I’m not advocating education for generalists, but rather for experts

Van der Velden is philosophical.

“Actually, we don’t know exactly how we’re doing in terms of employability; how fast technology will keep on developing and how exactly we

Jeroen van Merriënboer Jeroen van Merriënboer (1959) studied cognitive psychology and psychophysiology at VU University Amsterdam.

He obtained his PhD in instructional technology at the University of Twente in 1990, where he then worked for seven years. After that he relocated to Maastricht University, followed by the Open University.

Since 2009, he has been professor of Learning and Instruction and research director of the School of Health Professions Education (SHE) at Maastricht University.

Rolf van der Velden Rolf van der Velden (1955), professor of Education and the Professional Career, has worked at the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market at Maastricht University since 1990. He has directed the centre since 2013. Van der Velden studied sociology in Groningen and obtained his PhD at the University of Amsterdam in 1991 on the relationship between social background and educational success.

can best train our students. We do know how to impart disciplinary knowledge, but not how we can make people more innovative or entrepreneurial. Perhaps we have to talk more about this in a broader context - and dare to make mistakes.

That’s the way to keep on innovating our education.”

The labour market report is available from www.roa.nl/pdf _publications/ externalpublications/Employabilitystudy_ final.pdf

Rubicon grant for UM researcher Jessica Werthmann Jessica Werthmann, a researcher at the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, has been awarded a Rubicon grant by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The promising young researcher will use this grant to gain practical experience during a 24-month stay abroad. Werthmann is one of 19 talented researchers to receive a Rubicon grant.

Werthmann will study the eating habits

of anorexia nervosa patients. Anorexics suffer from severe food anxiety and avoid food as far as possible to limit their food intake. This theory, however, has yet to be substantiated by experimental research. Werthmann will use

Jessica Werthmann

her grant to determine whether anorexia symptoms decrease as interest in food increases. She will conduct her research at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London.

A six-minute breath test for breast cancer Researchers at the Maastricht UMC+ and Maastro Clinic have been working on a breath test that can detect breast cancer in just six minutes. Compared to the conventional mammogram, the breath test is fast, safe and painless. The results of this promising study were published recently in the journal PLOS ONE.

“The most striking and valuable result was the negative breath test”, says Philippe Lambin, professor of Radiotherapy in Maastricht. “This test can rule out breast cancer with nearly 100% accuracy.

Healthy participants had a normal breath test in nearly all cases. The test was also able to rule out the possibility of an abnor-

mal mammogram in these women, which means they can avoid undergoing that stressful procedure in the future.” In the event of a positive breath test, breast cancer was detected in nearly 80% of cases.

A positive result therefore indicates the need for further examination to confirm or rule out the presence of breast cancer.

Sixth win for UM

at the European Law Moot Court Competition A team of law students from Maastricht University has won the prestigious European Law Moot Court Competition (ELMC). UM has now won the title six times, more than any other Dutch university. The competition was organised by the European Court of Justice and held in Strasbourg before several European Court judges. This year’s theme was the recognition of gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples in the EU.

The team, consisting of the students Eva van Ooij, Pauline Melin, Myriam Douo and Vilhelmiina Ihamäki, competed

against the winners of the other regional finals in Lund, Leuven and Michigan.

Students at Maastricht’s Faculty of Law are thoroughly trained in making moot arguments throughout their studies, which stands them in good stead for international moot court competitions.

The competitions typically involve working on a fictional case study, writing documents for the case and pleading on behalf of the client - and against teams from other universities - before a panel of judges or professors.

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Professor-Student

André Klip and Maartje Krabbe

Excusable evil

By Jolien Linssen

“Imagine if I not only talked about my research, but also smashed everything in this room to bits”, Maartje Krabbe announced at the start of her PhD defence.

“In court, I’d tell the judge I couldn’t help it because I’d been under extreme stress. Should I be punished?” As an opener, it certainly woke up the audience and Krabbe, after ten years of research, can at last call herself a doctor.

“It was a great start”, André Klip, professor of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Transnational Criminal Law, tells his former PhD candidate. “The crowd immediately grasped the essence of your research.” This interview takes place only days after the defence, and the pair seize the opportunity to evaluate the big day. “It was really, very exciting”, Krabbe admits. “But I told myself that there are things in life that are even more frightening”, she laughs. Klip nods. “As a supervisor you want to help, but there’s nothing you can do.

I just really hoped she’d do well - and she did.”

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It was, after all, Klip who offered Krabbe the chance to embark on her research. “I never really planned on doing a PhD, although I enjoyed my studies, especially the last few years. When André asked me to start working on a research proposal, that was my first job offer. I was immediately enthusiastic.” Klip had noticed her talent for research while supervising her master’s thesis.

“She could write well and had great curiosity in seeking out explanations. Above all, she knew her way around the area of comparative law.”

A decade later, she is an expert in international criminal law. Her PhD research focuses on court cases involving complete defences before international criminal courts such as the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. “A complete defence consists of arguments used by a suspect who does not deny having committed a criminal offense, yet denies liability and is thus seeking to avoid punishment”, Krabbe explains. Insanity and duress are well-known examples of such arguments, recognised in domestic as well as international criminal law.

This must come as a relief for Krabbe, who describes the work of a PhD student as “a pretty awkward job - writing a book all by yourself that only a handful of people will read.” The combination of research and teaching therefore provided welcome variety. “Besides, André always had challenges lined up for me in addition to the thesis. He always gave me activities he thought would be interesting for me and contribute to my development. He never let me do any dull jobs.” On their collaboration, they are nothing but positive. “It doesn’t make for a great story - sorry about that - but there was no screaming, no slamming of doors”, Klip laughs. “It just worked out really well.”

Dražen Erdemović

Hence Krabbe’s example of wreaking havoc during her PhD defence: “If I were suffering from a nervous breakdown, I wouldn’t be able to help it and so couldn’t be held responsible for my actions.” The real-life offenses dealt with in international criminal courts are of a different nature, however, and that leads to problems. Could we ever excuse truly evil deeds, such as genocide and crimes against humanity?

We could, according to Krabbe. She recounts the story of the young Croatian soldier Dražen Erdemović, who joined the Bosnian Serb Army in the early nineties. On 16 July 1995, he is given a secret mission: to systematically shoot Muslims with an automatic rifle. When he refuses, he is faced with a choice: either kill or be killed. By the end of the day, Erdemović has shot about 70 people.

“In my research, I argue that if Erdemović really had no other choice - which has been demonstrated - and if he could not plausibly have foreseen being asked to commit such an atrocity, then he cannot be held accountable for his deeds”, Krabbe explains. “You cannot punish a person who had no other option than to do what he did.”

Discussion Yet Erdemović was convicted, and in practice all international criminal courts have consistently rejected such defences. Krabbe therefore proposes the introduction of a system of complete defences. “My aim is to promote discussion on this topic.” “That will happen of its own accord”, says Klip. “Your book is the first monograph on complete defences in international criminal law, so there’s no doubt it will be used.”

Maartje Krabbe Maartje Krabbe (1977) studied at Lawrence University (USA) before enrolling at the Maastricht Faculty of Law. After her graduation in 2004, she stayed on as a researcher and lecturer.

One of her research projects resulted in her PhD dissertation, ‘Excusable evil: An analysis of complete defences in international criminal law’. Krabbe currently works as a lecturer and researcher in the Criminal Law Department at Radboud University Nijmegen.

André Klip André Klip (1965) studied law at Utrecht University, where he obtained his PhD in 1994. He worked at the Willem Pompe Institute of Criminal Law and Crimino-logy from 1989 to 2002, and was appointed professor at Maastricht University in 2001.

Klip is a member of the Standing Committee of Experts in International Immigration, Refugee and Criminal Law and works as a judge at the ’s-Hertogenbosch Court of Appeal.

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Off the job

Does opera increase the chance of a heart attack?

By Annelotte Huiskes

“I didn’t have a poster of Bon Jovi in my student room. I had one of Plácido Domingo”, Martin Paul says with a smile. The president of Maastricht University saw his first opera in Saarbrücken at the age of six - and he was sold. “For me, opera is a way of switching off.

Other people hike or play squash. I listen to opera.” But opera also sparks his curiosity as a doctor: he recently published an article on why conductors are more likely than others to die of a cardiac arrest.

For 30 years, Paul has kept careful notes on where and when he sees which opera. At last count he had been to at least 150. During his time as a vascular medicine researcher in Boston, he would take the train to New York to catch a matinee followed by the evening show as well.

“One particular day I saw both Die Walkure by Wagner and Hoffmanns Erzählungen by Offenbach. On my own of course; you can’t inflict that on someone else.”

La Scala in the desert Maastricht has taken some getting used to. In the United States and later in Berlin, where he spent 15 years, he was spoilt for choice. The options here are somewhat more limited. “My wife

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and I had a season ticket for Liège, but we found it too traditional. I love contemporary productions and I’m always looking for new things; old operas I’ve never seen before or super modern work. In Berlin we had our pick of five symphony orchestras and three operas. You could decide on Saturday morning what you wanted to see that night and still always get tickets. Here you have to plan things in advance, and I don’t have much time for that. So unfortunately it’s a rare pleasure now. But if I’m at a conference or on the road, I always check if there’s a good opera on. So I’ve seen the craziest things.

Ten years ago I was in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. There’s nothing to do there at night - all they had was a big

opera house. I paid €1 and saw the most old-fashioned production of a Verdi opera. But the remarkable thing was that this opera house had been built after World War II by German prisoners of war, a sort of La Scala in the middle of the desert.”

Meditation He may not buy into the star cult surrounding certain singers, conductors and composers, but Paul is a fan of Richard Wagner. “I love the music, not the person. For me Wagner is an emotional experience that stimulates all my senses. If it’s done well, I get sucked into this artificial world, a sort of trip. The first act of Parsifal is wonderful, almost a religious experience. But Wagner’s not for

Martin Paul (with thanks to theatre La Bonbonnière)

beginners”, he warns. “I didn’t start with Wagner. He’s especially difficult because he represents the transition to modern opera. He wanted to create a Gesamtkunstwerk, and his integrated approach has such inspiring complexity.”

Paul prefers to listen to opera in the evening or at night. “I have to make a point of sitting down for it; it’s not something I can listen to in the car or as background music. My kids find it a bit strange that I listen to different versions of the same aria three times in a row. I still find it the best way to relax and switch off. I have a busy job, always a lot on my mind, but for me it’s meditative.”

Opera and death But opera for Paul is not only a matter of relaxation. He has also studied the opera literature and the lives of composers, and has made some interesting discoveries.

Two conductors, for instance -

Felix Mottl and Joseph Keilberth both died of a heart attack while conducting the same intense, emotional piece of Wagner in the same Munich opera house; Mottl in 1911, Keilberth in 1968. “As a cardiovascular researcher, I found that very interesting. Why are conductors more likely than others to die of a heart attack? Because when I went searching I found many more examples. It seems to have something to do with the stress involved in conducting an orchestra and with the emotion of the music. I recently wrote an article on this topic.”

For 15 years, Paul has been a member of an informal study group in Berlin of historians, philosophers and physicians who publish regularly on the representation of disease in the arts. “Composers were the celebrities of their day, with very public lives.

So there’s a lot of medical data about them in the public domain. Händel and Mendelssohn died of strokes, for

example, and Wagner of a heart attack. But the list of composers who died of cardiovascular disease is much longer: Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, Verdi, Bruckner, Dvorak, Reger and Schönberg.

Chopin died of tuberculosis, an infectious disease that is itself a recurring theme in opera. This is because tuberculosis was a common disease in the second half of the 19th

century, which is when many operas were created. How this fact is then transformed into a story and set to music is something I find extremely interesting. When I retire, I plan to explore this further and publish on it.”

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International

Han Aarts and Lieselotte Heederik (local project coordinator) in Jakarta with the management of NPI

Maastricht University supports training of Indonesian National Police

By Graziella Runchina

Tackling corruption, throwing the spotlight on human rights and introducing the community policing concept in the kampungs, the local communities.

These are the challenges of a new project in which experts from the Faculty of Law, coordinated by MUNDO, will oversee the training of Indonesian police officers. Running until February 2018, the project involves the retraining of more than 420,000 officers from the Indonesian National Police (NPI) as part of the country’s democratisation process.

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“To develop the training programme we’ll collaborate closely with LEMDIKPOL, the education and training institute of the NPI in Jakarta”, explains Han Aarts. He is the director of MUNDO, a Maastricht University institute that coordinates projects on development cooperation - including this ambitious project. Aarts has just returned from a trip to Indonesia for the project launch.

Development relationship “It’s no coincidence that the retraining of the NPI has fallen to the Netherlands”, Aarts says. “We have a longstanding relationship with Indonesia focusing on three main development priorities: water, food and the rule of law. UM in particular has worked with two Indonesian law faculties for years, at Gadjah Mada University in Yokjakarta and Udayana University in Bali.

Thanks to the collaboration with UM, their bachelor’s programmes in law have improved in leaps and bounds.”

Legal knowledge “The police retraining project brings together researchers from Maastricht’s Faculty of Law with CINOP, an expertise centre focusing on vocational secondary education, to develop new training programmes. We’ll contribute our legal insight, our knowledge about the police in the Netherlands, and the problem- and competence-based approach that UM has such experience with. A number of Indonesian experts from the law faculty’s network will also be involved. MUNDO is responsible for managing the project, while CINOP will focus more on distance education in the skills needed to reach as many officers as possible with the new training programmes.”

Protecting the public The project forms part of the Dutch government’s wider efforts to support the transition of the Indonesian police force from an authoritarian body to a service provider for civil society.

To this end, protecting the public and complying with established norms and values are major spearheads.

“Today’s Indonesian police can’t be compared to the sort of police force we’re familiar with. The NPI is involved in surveillance and even repression”, Aarts says. “Moreover, they’re notoriously corrupt. Overcoming that will be one of the biggest challenges, although of course we ourselves have no direct influence over it. We hope the programmes will help to reduce corruption and change attitudes, such that the societal task of the police becomes the priority.”

Technical infrastructure The Indonesian police force is by no means small, and is spread over a vast country with more than 14,000 islands. To reach as many officers are possible, distance education and e-learning will be indispensable. The Institute of Technology Bandung

(ITB) is therefore an important partner. “Their task will be to develop the required technical infrastructure”, Aarts explains.

Interrogation techniques The UM researchers will develop educational materials for various police training programmes and train lecturers in new teaching methods. “These trainers will then transmit what they have learned to the police officers in the field. We’ll start this autumn with several pilots at police schools in Indonesia, such as the Criminal Investigators School. A key focus will be on improving interrogation techniques, as these leave a lot to be desired. Some attention for human rights would not go astray in Indonesia. The idea is to develop skills training modules and stimulate discussion on the consequences of a corrupt police force. To illustrate this we’ll develop behavioural-therapeutic teaching materials that include issues like corruption. We also want to give concrete examples of how to avoid corrupt behaviour.”

Han Aarts and Lieselotte Heederik with two national police women in Bandung

Community policing Another retraining project will support the introduction of the community policing concept. “In the kampungs, the communities that make up large parts of Indonesia, the police work closely with the local people. We want to develop a sort of Indonesian variant of the neighbourhood police officer in the kampungs. This is beneficial for citizens.”

The four-year project is supported by a €1.4 million grant from the NICHE programme. Administered by Nuffic, the NICHE is an initiative of the Dutch government to promote development cooperation in higher education.

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Research and society

Raymond Montizaan

Retiring later?

Think about it now

By Jos Cortenraad

The scrapping of the favourable pension scheme for Dutch civil servants had hidden side effects, such as reduced motivation and productivity.

This was Raymond Montizaan’s conclusion several years ago following a study by the Maastricht Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA). Now he is leading a new study with much more alarming results: “We’re not well prepared for the consequences of the increased retirement age, and many people are finding themselves in financial difficulties.”

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Montizaan feels at home in Maastricht. Born and raised in Apeldoorn, he enjoys the cultural atmosphere of the city. The last European Fine Art Fair was not lost on him, he reflects, sitting in his office on an early spring day in 2014.

But as a researcher at ROA, he is less optimistic. In fact, he is downright concerned about the results of a recent, comprehensive study on the effects of the increase of the retirement age to 67. “Neither employers nor employees are really aware of the consequences”, he says. “People

don’t yet realise that they’ll have to work longer and they’ll receive a lower pension than expected. Most employers still adhere to the social norm of no longer investing in staff over the age of 55. Unconsciously, perhaps, but to keep employees productive and motivated, employers must provide training and courses. After all, the point is to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. The days of people sailing off into the sunset at the age of 62 are long gone.”

Retirement age The problem in the Netherlands, as in other European countries, is clear.

There are too few workers to pay the premiums needed to keep the social welfare system afloat. Cutbacks were first made to early retirement schemes, and now the retirement age is gradually increasing to 67 to ensure there are enough workers to line the state pension pot. But can everyone really keep on working so long?

“It depends on the sector. People who do strenuous physical or mental work tend to run out of steam earlier, and are declared unfit for work or laid off.

Either way they end up on benefits, which just puts more strain on the social welfare system in a different way.”

So is Montizaan calling for a reversal of policy? “No, that train has left the station. The current policy places more responsibility on individuals.

But our research shows that few people are aware of the risks and consequences. If they want to retire earlier, they need to take action to supplement their pension. They can save, take out an insurance policy, invest in a house. There are plenty of options, and the earlier you start, the better. Of course, it requires discipline.

It’s more fun to spend money now.

I like eating out on weekends too, or picking out a nice bottle at the wine merchant. But it’s important to take a long-term view. Young people in particular tend to neglect their pensions, yet they’ll be the hardest hit.

They are accruing lower pensions and, thanks to the reduced premiums, a lower proportion is covered. That’s nice for your net income now, but you’ll get the bill later. Set that ‘profit’ aside, that’s my advice.”

The research also shows that few employees know how much - or how little - their pension will be. “We examined the files of APG, the pension manager for the civil service and the education sector. These are welleducated people, but their financial knowledge is often limited. This is unlikely to be much better in other sectors. So it’s important to communicate better, do more in terms of information provision. The first step is to raise awareness.”

Side effects Incidentally, Montizaan says, working longer is by no means a panacea.

His earlier research on the scrapping of the early retirement scheme for civil servants revealed unexpected side effects. “There were problems with motivation and lower produc-

tivity. Especially among people who fell just outside the scope of the old scheme. They felt unfairly treated, and that wasn’t about the money.

Something can be done about this dissatisfaction: continue to invest in older workers. Training and courses are often seen as rewards. This helps employees keep up with the times and they’ll be more willing to pass on their knowledge to younger colleagues.

But our research shows that while larger organisations are prepared to invest in people over the age of 55, smaller organisations often aren’t.

We also still see the existing prejudices: older people tend to get sick, they’re less productive, less interested in learning new things. Studies are challenging these prejudices more than ever. Now that the retirement age is shifting, it’s important for employers to move with it and invest more in their older workers. But we still have a long way to go; the labour market has not yet adapted to the higher retirement age.”

Raymond Montizaan Raymond Montizaan (1980) has worked at ROA, part of Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics, since 2010. He studied economics in Nijmegen and Tilburg, and obtained his PhD in Maastricht in 2010 on the theme of pension entitlements and welfare. Montizaan is a fellow at the Graduate School of Business and Economics and the international research institute IZA, and has authored and co-authored dozens of academic publications.

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The first graduates

Life as a UM student, 40 years ago

By Hanna McLean

In 1974 - forty years ago, and two years before Maastricht University was even recognised as an institution - the first medical students started their studies at what was then the Rijksuniversiteit Limburg. These 49 adventurous scholars were the first to set foot in the new establishment and take part in its ground-breaking learning system, Problem-Based Learning (PBL).

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One of the students in this group was Anna Marie Frusch.

Starting out at UM, she says, was both exciting and demanding. “In the beginning there were a lot of critics, but because we were the first to give the new system a try, we also enjoyed a warm welcome in Maastricht. It was an exciting time.”

ogist. The new programme in Maastricht seemed like it was meant to be. “I’d already been offered a place in the medical programme in Groningen, but I gave it up because I’d heard a lot about the new university and the new PBL system”, she says. “I thought, why not? I loved the city and wanted to give PBL a try, so I went for it.”

UM pioneers Frusch, who comes from a long line of midwives, knew from the age of 15 that she wanted to become a gynaecol-

Frusch and her 50 fellow students - 15 or so of them women are pioneers in the educational world. “Because we were the first, we really tried to make things work in the new system.

Visit us at www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/alumni

In the group discussions it felt like we were breaking new ground”, she explains. “The friendliness and enthusiasm that our teachers brought to their work was also a great thing to experience. We wanted to make UM education a reality, and they supported us with enormous fervour.”

It wasn’t all smooth sailing; the young scholars also had to deal with their share of sceptics. “People told us we weren’t really doctors, just technicians in medicine. But comparisons with other universities showed that we had the same knowledge as other students, and in fact better capacities when it came to handling problems on our own and finding solutions.”

Life today Looking back, Frusch wouldn’t change a thing. “I’m happy with my life. Of course we’ve had our ups and downs, but I think everything turned out just fine.” In fact Frusch, who lives in Mexico, went on to do some extraordinary things.

“I came to Mexico after my studies because I wanted to help less fortunate people in developing countries. In the end, it was me who learned from them.

My first job here was at the ABC Hospital, a private hospital in Mexico City. It was there that I began working with an accomplished gynaecologist, who later became my husband”, Frusch smiles. “We had a great time. He was already a famous doctor, and together we started the first in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) programme in Mexico in 1985. Our first IVF baby was born one year later. It was incredible.”

Frusch and her husband opened their IVF clinic to the public from 1991 to 2008, and trained more than 40 gynaecologists and biologists in fertility treatment for the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Five years ago the clinic was acquired by one of the largest hospitals in Mexico. “It’s been a great journey through IVF and infertility, and I’ve truly enjoyed supporting my husband through all of it. He often jokes that I started working for him and now he works for me”, she laughs.

Lifelong learning UM helped her in many ways, Frusch says. Not least by sparking her drive to learn: “At UM I realised the importance of educating yourself. Even today, I still have the desire to learn; I’m doing the European Master in Transfusional and Advanced Cellular Therapy (EMTACT) online. I’m just finishing up the final tasks and have started on my thesis”, she explains. “Having worked with the zygote [also known as the totipotencial cell -Ed.]

Anna Marie Frusch with her husband Alfonso and her sons Joep and Jeronimo

in IVF I’m interested in the new developments in advanced cellular therapy, and therefore in freeze chord-blood units, bone marrow and peripheral blood for our hospital.

We had a protocol of 24 trial on the use of skeletal miocytes

in female urinary stress incontinence. Together with another haematologist I’ll inherit responsibility for this unit, so I decided to start EMTACT in September 2012.”

Frusch’s time at UM also helped her to dig deeper when working with clients. “It’s allowed me to focus on the needs of infertile people. I try to help them accept their infertility, but I also work hard to find a solution. I see the person or couple as a whole, and that’s helped me feel fulfilled in my work.”

During the opening of the academic year on Monday 1 September, the UM president Martin Paul will present gifts to the first cohort of graduates.

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An Jacobs

Ten-hut! One graduate’s journey to training the British army

By Hanna McLean

In April, Maastricht University alum An Jacobs started a fascinating new career, teaching at the UK’s Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. “When I saw the job vacancy for a senior lecturer, I thought, ‘This is the job for me’. I figured it was a long shot because of the competition, but I applied anyway”, Jacobs reflects. “I was over the moon when I was offered the position.”

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Visit us at www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/alumni

Jacobs is excited to be working for the Military Academy. “Not only is it a prestigious institute, but the British Army is involved in some of the most challenging conflicts across the globe.” She is no stranger to military and defence issues, having spent two years in Kosovo as a political adviser and reporting officer for the EU Rule of Law Mission, EULEX. EULEX works in close collaboration with KFOR, the NATO-led international force in Kosovo.

From Kosovo to the classroom Making the transition from Kosovo to the Military Academy was both invigorating and challenging. Jacobs left behind friendships forged on the ground and had to adapt to an entirely new way of working. “The formal atmosphere will take some getting used to. The officer cadets are accustomed to a much more hierarchical system than I was used to in Kosovo.”

While it is still early days at Sandhurst, Jacobs is enjoying the job. “Of course, this first year will involve a great deal of preparation on my part. I have a lot of expert knowledge in international security issues, but my new role includes some highly specialised areas. Some of the courses I’ll be delivering I haven’t actually taught before - but I enjoy studying and I’m happy to roll my sleeves up and get stuck in.”

Jacobs trains officer cadets on their commissioning course, lectures on a range of topics and conducts research on European and African security

issues. “In a former job I did fieldwork

in Africa, which became a real passion.”

She analysed reform efforts in the civilian and military security sector in Congo, Burundi and Uganda.

“I’m thrilled to be able to build on that experience.”

Jacobs also has the unique chance to see first-hand what Academy life is like: for the first six months, her living quarters are in the Sandhurst Officers Mess. “It’s been interesting so far, getting acquainted with British military traditions and seeing how it all works. This job is much more than just work; it’s like stepping into a family that’s proud of its identity.

I’m pleased to be part of it.”

Security matters “Funnily enough, my first degree is in music”, Jacobs laughs. “It was during my European Studies degrees in Maastricht that foreign policy, development and security issues really sparked my interest. I wrote my bachelor’s thesis on EU-Cuba relations and my master’s thesis on Morocco. Afterwards I did my PhD on the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy in Manchester, and then went to work for a research institute, the Centre for Security Studies, in Zurich. It was this research that led me to both Africa and Kosovo.”

What is that attracts her to issues of international security? “I find the changing nature of the international system and the dynamics of international security both complex and fascinating. There are so many

fragile states and areas of (post-) conflict in the world. For me, training

officers is a way of making an indirect but valuable contribution to international security.”

Maastricht memories Looking back, Jacobs believes her time at Maastricht University kick-started her career. With the bachelor’s and master’s in European Studies in her pocket, she spent a year as a junior lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. “Maastricht has a family vibe, as does the university.

I think the combination of this atmosphere, the support of the faculty staff and the uniqueness of ProblemBased Learning helped get my career off to a good start.”

Today’s job market, she acknowledges, is not always kind to fresh graduates.

“I never really had a career plan, but one thing always led to another. This might be stating the obvious, but passion, hard work and determination will get you a long way.”

An Jacobs

An Jacobs (1978) is a senior lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

She previously worked as a political adviser and reporting officer at EULEX in Kosovo.

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University Fund

Peter Thijssen Fund established The Peter Thijssen Fund was recently established under the auspices of the Limburg University Fund/ SWOL. The fund aims to support scientific research and other initiatives at Maastricht University (UM) that promote financial integrity in society. The fund was established on the initiative of, and with key donations from, several companies and individuals.

The fund was established in memory of Peter Thijssen, director of ING Limburg until 2009. Over the years, he provided financial advice for numerous non-profit initiatives in Limburg. He also served as treasurer of the Limburg University Fund/SWOL from 2005 to 2013. Both the University Fund and therefore also UM greatly benefited from his voluntary involvement, dedication and integrity. With the installation of this fund, his commitment to UM and to science will live on.

UM researchers can apply to the Peter Thijssen Fund to support their projects on financial integrity in society.

For more information, please go to Named Funds at www.ufl-swol.nl.

Peter Thijssen

Growing impact of Limburg University Fund/SWOL Last year marked the fifth consecutive year of growth in the funds raised by the Limburg University Fund/SWOL. Given the backdrop of slow economic growth, this achievement is all the more remarkable.

Individuals and companies donated almost â‚Ź 600,000 to the university and its researchers. Among the private donors are former university staff, emeritus professors, Maastricht and Limburg residents and, of course, alumni. The number of private donors is increasing steadily year after year. In addition, 20 named funds have been established since 2010.

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In 2013 the fund donated approximately â‚Ź 450,000 to UM, a 30% increase compared to five years ago. The grants were spread across 40 research projects, scholarships for excellent students, professorial chairs and teaching facilities.

Dutch Municipal Bank becomes curatorium member The Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten (Dutch Municipal Bank, BNG) has joined the curatorium of the University Fund.

The curatorium is composed of

companies that donate annually to the University Fund, enabling it to support UM education and research. Members of this group are also involved in the

regular events of the Academy meets Friends organised by the fund.

Crowdfunding for children in Indian slums Maastricht professor Onno van Schayck recently delivered a TED Talk on his plan to prevent lung diseases in Indian slums by way of affordable ovens and chimneys.

To make this idea a reality, the Limburg University Fund is aiming to raise € 25,000 through crowdfunding.

Dharavi (Mumbai) is one of the largest slums in the world. Home to more than a million people, it is choked with air pollution. By building cheap ovens and more efficient chimneys, professor of Preventive Medicine Van Schayck and his team of Indian and Dutch researchers aim to give residents a healthier future.

According to the World Health Organisation, more than a million Indians die each year as a result of indoor air pollution.

Slum dwellers cook in their huts, often measuring fewer than four by four metres, and then spend day and night in these smoke-filled huts. The hazardous substances they are exposed to cause diseases such as lung cancer and COPD. “There’s no smoke outlet, so the slums are blue with smoke”, Van Schayck explains. “It’s terrible to hear kids coughing all the time.”

To bring about change, project funding is sorely needed. More information can

Dharavi (Mumbai)

be found on the website of the Limburg University Fund.

The logos of members of the Limburg University Fund Curatorium are shown below. These companies and private individuals are highly respected for the support they give to academic research and education. The Limburg University Fund/SWOL is very grateful to its Curatorium members for their commitment to Maastricht University.

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Luc Soete receives honorary doctorate from Liège Professor Luc Soete, rector magnificus of Maastricht University, was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Liège last month. This award recognises his outstanding research on technological innovation and the economic mechanisms that underlie it, as well as his major contributions as an adviser to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Commission and the Dutch and Belgian governments.

Soete was nominated for the honorary doctorate by Professor Yves Crama from the Liège HEC Management School. He had already received an honorary doctorate from the University of Ghent in 2010.

New chair of RISE high level group Soete was appointed chair of the European Commission’s new high level group Research, Innovation and Science Policy Experts (RISE) as of May 2014.

Luc Soete

Part of the Horizon 2020 programme, this expert group will focus on how research, innovation and policy in the European Union can be used to develop

a more sustainable model for EU growth.

Malaria heading for the hills By the end of this century, the impact of climate change means malaria will increasingly be found in upland areas, according to new research. For the first time, scientists have compared the latest global warming predictions with a range of statistical models used to predict the spread of malaria. This research, conducted by scientists from the universities of Liverpool, Maastricht and elsewhere, was published in the

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The models show that by 2080, the climate at higher altitudes will become increasingly conducive to malaria. This will affect millions of people in Africa and, to a lesser extent, Asia and South America. The changing climate will allow malaria to shift to higher altitudes during warmer seasons and establish

itself permanently in larger areas. This could result in the exposure of an additional 100 million people in eastern Africa by the end of the 2080s.

The publication was co-authored by Professor Pim Martens of the International Centre for Integrated Assessment and Sustainable Development (ICIS) at Maastricht University.

Listening behaviour more valuable than Facebook likes Adele may have topped the US Billboard Album Charts in 2012, but consumers spent more time listening to the Beatles.

According to Hannes Datta’s PhD research, information about consumer listening behaviour - known as ‘big data’ - is more valuable to talent managers than sales data alone. Listening

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behaviour also appears to be a better predictor of sales figures than the number of ‘likes’ an artist gets on Facebook. And although illegal music downloads certainly affect profits, the same group of downloaders compensates for these losses.

Contents

Further 04 Leading in Learning - Top position for Master in Public Policy and Human Development 06 Entrepreneurial research group - Clemens van Blitterswijk: Leading by example

10

Nobiliary law

The High Council of Nobility will celebrate its 200th anniversary on 23 June. Professor René de Groot, will deliver the keynote address in the presence of King Willem-Alexander.

De Groot’s position on nobiliary law is anything but vague: one should refrain from overhauling such a historic institution.

“But should you choose to modernise it, you have to treat men and women equally.”

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Alum Anna Marie Frusch In 1974 – forty years ago, and two years before Maastricht University was even recognised as an institution - the first medical students started their studies at what was then the Rijksuniversiteit Limburg. These 49 adventurous scholars were the first to set foot in the new establishment and take part in its ground-breaking learning system, Problem-Based Learning (PBL). One of them was Anna Marie Frusch.

12 Publication - Hubert Coonen: University career for excellent teachers 16 TEFAF Oncology Chair - Hans Clevers: “Fountain of eternal youth lies in stem cell” 18 Inauguration - Klaartje Peters: On the way to the local state?

20 Debate - Jeroen Merriënboer and Rolf van der Velden discuss work prospects of graduates 24 Professor-Student - Professor André Klip and PhD student Maartje Krabbe 26 Off the job - Martin Paul: Does opera increase the chance of a heart attack?

28 International - Mundo supports training of Indonesian National Police 30 Research and society - Raymond Montizaan: Retiring later?

Think about it now 34 Alumni - An Jacobs: Ten-hut! One graduate’s journey to training the British army 36 University Fund - Peter Thijssen Fund established - News News 9, 14, 15, 23 and 38

Profile

Colophon

Education and research at Maastricht

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University is organised primarily on the

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Chief Editor: Annelotte Huiskes

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Editorial Board: Luc Soete (President),

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences • Politics and Culture in Europe • Science, Technology and Society • Arts, Media and Culture • Globalisation, Transnationalism and Development Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences • School for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism (NUTRIM) • School for Cardiovascular Diseases (CARIM) • School for Public Health and Primary Care (CAPHRI) • School for Mental Health and Neuroscience (MHeNS) • School for Oncology and Developmental Biology (GROW) • School of Health Professions Education (SHE) Faculty of Humanities and Sciences • Department of Knowledge Engineering • International Centre for Integrated assessment and Sustainable development (ICIS) • Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) • University College Maastricht • Teachers Academy • Maastricht Science Programme

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Photography: Harry Heuts (p14), Ralf Mertens (p16,17), Istockphoto (p9,37,38), Sacha Ruland (cover, p2,3,4,6,7, 8,10,12,15,18,20,24,26,30,34), Maarten Simonis (p23), Roy Wanders (p9) Translations and English editing: Alison Edwards Graphic concept: Vormgeversassociatie BV, Hoog-Keppel Graphic design: Grafisch Ontwerpbureau Emilio Perez, Geleen Print: Pietermans Drukkerij, Lanaken (B) Maastricht University magazine is published in February, June and October. It is sent on demand to UM alumni and to external relations.

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ISSN: 2210-5212

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magazine 02/June 2014

Based in Europe, focused on the world. Maastricht University is a stimulating environment. Where research and teaching are complementary. Where innovation is our focus. Where talent can flourish. A truly student oriented research university.

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About education and research at Maastricht University

Van Blitterswijk’s entrepreneurial group

research arrives in Maastricht - p6

Employability Jeroen MerriĂŤnboer and Rolf van der Velden discuss work prospects of graduates - p20

On the

way to the

local state?

Interview with Klaartje Peters - p18