Twelve secundary schools in Limburg have received a total amount of EUR 1,2m from the Ministry of Education to carry out a pilot project called “Academic School”.
The academic school is a new type of school that will connect “education and innovation to research and development.” The main characteristic of this type of education is the […]

It seems that our memories are less than trustworthy, and Dutch experimental psychologist Elke Geraerts knows some impressive tricks of the trade for proving this:
“We did an experiment with children, showing them pictures from when they were four years old. Some were true pictures but there were also fakes, doctored to show the child in […]

In early 2006, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science asked Nuffic to work with VSNU (the Association of Universities in the Netherlands) and HBO-raad (the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences) to produce a typological description of Dutch higher education institutions that would do justice to their great and growing diversity. The idea was […]

It will soon be easier for international students to follow a period of training in the Netherlands. This is the intention of the Dutch cabinet, set out in a letter to the House of Representatives. The rules will also be relaxed for foreign technical and medical workers. The government’s plans will mean that from October […]

The European Commission has authorised Belgium to finance the construction of transhipment facilities in order to revitalise the Lanaken (B) – Maastricht (NL) railway line.
The reactivation of the abandoned railway line between Lanaken and Maastricht will promote railway freight transport activities. The measure does not constitute aid and is therefore compatible with the proper functioning […]

EU citizens speaking Catalan, Basque or Galician can now communicate with the European Parliament in their own language, after a small majority in the parliament agreed to the move.
The vote cast by parliament president Josep Borrell was determined when seven out of 14 vice-presidents in the parliament’s so-called “bureau” voted in favour, while the rest […]

More than 500,000 cycling fans were in Valkenburg in the south-east of the Netherlands on Tuesday to watch German Matthias Kessler win the third stage of the Tour de France.
This is the second time the famous cycling event has visited the municipality of Valkenburg aan de Geul. An estimated 600,000 people lined the course through […]

The Netherlands has entered its first official heatwave, meteorological bureau KNMI confirmed on Tuesday.
Thermometers at ‘De Bilt’ weather station registered 30 degrees at 12.01, making Tuesday the third day of tropical weather in a row. KNMI said this satisfied the definition of a heatwave: at least five days in a row of temperatures above […]

Lelystad is to get a school where the subject transcendental meditation (TM) is to be taught. Initiator Sjoerd Vos expects the government to approve the plan, because the school is founded on religious principles.
Earlier this year, a public school (De Rietlanden) in Lelystad attempted to provide meditation lessons. Education Minister Maria Van der Hoeven put […]

Sniffy classicists, who have always looked down at the European Union as a pale imitation of their beloved Roman Empire, will be delighted. Having pinched the Romans’ idea of a single currency, the EU has now decided to embrace Latin. Finland, which is running the EU for the next six months, is to publish weekly […]

Dutch consumers throw a total of EUR 2.1 billion worth of food into the garbage every year, according to officials at the Ministry of Agriculture. Noting most people agree disposing of food in this way is not ‘ethical’, the Ministry said both consumers and the food industry have to work together to tackle the waste.
Source: […]

Former Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers, who was appointed by Queen Beatrix to oversee the formation of a new government, expects a general election to be held on 22 November. Mr Lubbers says he should have finished preparations for Jan Peter Balkenende’s third cabinet by the end of this week, earlier than was expected.
The two […]

The Dutch and Belgian provinces of Limburg will place the same “welcome” sign on roads leading to the region. The sign will read: “De Limburgers heten u van harte welkom” (literally “The Limburgers wish you a warm welcome”). The text will be the same in both provinces but in the Netherlands, the sign will […]

The Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) will in September open a museum in Maastricht.
The museum will be housed in the Wiebengahal, next to the Bonnefanten Museum. The NAi plans to host a semi-permanent exhibit about architecture in South-Limburg as well as temporary exhibits about the developments in the area of architecture, urbanisation and design in […]

Dr. Patrick Schrauwen, senior scientist on the WCFS project ‘Diet, insulin resistance and chronic inflammation’ and associate Professor at the Department of Human Biology of the Nutrition and Toxicology Research Institute Maastricht (NUTRIM), Maastricht University, has won the ‘Silver Medal Award’ of the ‘Nutrition Society’. Schrauwen will receive the award in Aberdeen (UK) on July […]

The Dutch National Institute of Public Health and the Environment has issued a moderate smog warning for today, saying people should avoid extreme physical exertion. Smog is the result of air pollutants, strong sunlight and high temperatures and can cause shortness of breath, headaches and bronchial irritation.
A smog warning was issued earlier in Belgium, where […]

When the new Higher Education Act is passed, EU students studying in the Netherlands will no longer qualify for a partial restitution of their tuition fees. Five universities close to the border fear that this change will deter international students from studying there.
The partial restitution of tuition fees for EU students was introduced in the […]

The European Commission has taken action against France, Italy and Spain for not recognizing professional qualifications earned in other member states. Some Italian nationals, for example, were refused access to the Spanish labour market because they were told that their engineering qualifications were not valid in Spain. In Greece, architectural qualifications were evaluated incorrectly, and […]

Looking for touristic tips in Belgian and Dutch Limburg? Visit the new website: http://www.LieverLimburgs.tv (in Dutch).
The video clips present touristic attractions in the two Limburg provinces and originate from the television programme “Liever Limburgs” which is currently being broadcast in both regions.
The number of video clips is expected to reach 150.
Source: L1 Nieuws […]

Ruud Lubbers, the veteran Dutch politician, has been handed the task of piecing together the third government in four years of Jan Peter Balkenende, premier, following the collapse last week of the centre-right coalition in the dispute over the citizenship of the anti-Islam campaigner Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Mr Lubbers, 67, Dutch prime minister from 1982 to […]

Minister for Education, Culture and Science Maria Van der Hoeven will take interim charge of media policy following the collapse of the Dutch Cabinet last Thursday. Deputy Minister for Culture and the Media Medy van der Laan is one of those who quit the Cabinet as she’s a member of the D66 party that is […]

The HST TGV station in Liège will be called ‘Luik-Limburg/Liège-Limbourg’, announced Mayor Demeyer of Liège on the occasion of the visit of Queen Beatrix and King Albert to his city. Governor Stevaert had been asking for a change of name for some time. The name has been changed and so now Limburg can claim to […]

The final specifications for Maastricht University’s Calatrava Campus will include: 28,000 m2 of living space (as against 24,000m2), 120 student rooms including 96 in the guest house, 384 studios, 48 apartments, 9,000m2 of office space for start-ups, 600m2 of commercial space, 600 m2 of catering, 10,250 m2 for sports facilities, with a total of 224,000m3 […]

The Spanish newspaper El Pais says the fall of the Dutch cabinet amounted to a “very expensive new passport for the Somali” Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The English newspaper The Financial Times says the Hirsi Ali affair placed the Netherlands “in a very bad light”.
Belgium’s left-wing De Morgen says the Dutch cabinet fell because of Immigration […]