Professor Jo Ritzen

Jozef Ritzen, (Dutch national, physics engineer, economist and politician) was Minister of Education, Culture, and Science of the Netherlands from 1989–1998. During his term, he enacted a series of major reforms throughout the Dutch education system. Subsequently, he was Vice-President of the World Bank (1998–2003) and President of Maastricht University (2003–2011). During his Presidency, Maastricht University grew to be one of the leading international teaching research universities, with a problem-based learning approach to education and nearly half of its students coming from abroad. Jozef Ritzen is now honourary professor of Maastricht University.