{"id":178512,"date":"2025-04-29T13:51:29","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T11:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=178512"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:48","slug":"university-of-maastricht-allowed-to-recruit-limited-number-of-internationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2025\/04\/29\/university-of-maastricht-allowed-to-recruit-limited-number-of-internationals\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Maastricht allowed to recruit limited number of internationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

His own party, NSC, anticipated a serious conversation between the minister and the University of Maastricht. However, that won\u2019t be necessary, promises education minister Eppo Bruins. While the university is indeed recruiting foreign students again, it is adhering to the agreements made.<\/p>\n

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Since last year, the University of Maastricht has been actively seeking students in Belgium and Germany for three new programmes, reported university medium Observant in early March.<\/p>\n

Is this compatible with the cabinet\u2019s goal of attracting fewer internationals to the Netherlands? The NSC\u2019s House of Representatives faction, the minister\u2019s party, questioned whether he should engage in discussions with Maastricht to hold the administration \u2018accountable\u2019.<\/p>\n

Small-scale<\/h2>

However, Bruins sees no reason to do so. Inquiries at the university reveal that the recruitment was actually a form of \u2018small-scale information provision in the region around Maastricht\u2019 (specifically in the so-called Maas-Rhine Euregio) and moreover, it was only aimed at programmes in sectors with shortages.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Bruins\u2019 predecessor Robbert Dijkgraaf agreed in a governance agreement that universities would cease large-scale recruitment activities. They were only allowed to bring in \u2018very limited\u2019 students from abroad for programmes in the sectors of healthcare, science, technology, engineering, mathematics and education.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Observant, president Rianne Letschert stated that she no longer feels bound by this governance agreement. The government is not adhering to it with its cuts, Letschert reasoned in Observant: \u201cFor us, the agreement no longer exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to agreement<\/h2>

However, in practice, the university is adhering to the agreement, minister Bruins notes. The recruitment of students in Maastricht was, according to him, aimed at the programmes of brain science and regenerative medicine and technology \u2013 two technical healthcare programmes, where there is, also according to Bruins, a significant demand in the job market.<\/p>\n

Regarding the third new programme Sustainable Bioscience, Bruins does make a comment: it does not yet have accreditation, he writes, so recruitment for it is not permitted. However, Bruins claims that this third programme was \u2018erroneously\u2019 mentioned in the article by Observant. \u201cThe university has assured me that it has not undertaken recruitment activities aimed at this programme.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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