Internationalization

With the foundation of the Institute for Development Studies (IVO) in 1962, the University made its first strides towards internationalization. This Institute aimed to “promote applied socio-economic research, training and capacity-building in developing countries.” Collaborating with partner organizations in developing countries, such as Bolivia, Costa Rica, Eritrea, India and Ruanda, IVO developed research partnerships, a grants program and supervision schemes for PhD students from these countries. IVO was meant to be financially self-sufficient and was funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the EU and the World Bank. Financial embarrassment caused it to be dissolved in 2013, by which time, however, research internationalization had already become commonplace, with partnerships, networks, publications in foreign journals, international symposiums, etc., available in all shapes and sizes.

International Office

In the early seventies, education began to internationalize when the International Office was founded, aiming to arrange international traineeships and support student and staff exchange programs. There was an annual exchange program with US universities, and there were ATSO study trips to communist countries, such as China and Cuba. US relations were fostered by the activities of the J.F. Kennedy Institute, set up in 1966 by Frans Alting von Geusau (1933), Professor of International Law. This Institute, connected to the Law Faculty, specialized in international relations and launched an American student exchange program in 1972. When, on the initiative of the European Commission, the Erasmus program was established in 1987, a strong tail wind properly set internationalization off on a speedy course. The program aimed to improve student and staff mobility in Europe, and Tilburg University was in on it from the very start. With 22 Belgian and seven British students in 1987, however, the number of international students was still a little underwhelming at the outset.

Crossing borders

Soon internationalization was to move beyond the borders of Europe. In the nineties, Chinese, Russian and Turkish universities were contacted. External advisors were sometimes involved, such as former Minister Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst in the case of Turkey. There were also relations with South-African universities (involving Arts Faculty language programs), Indonesia and several South-American universities (based on established IVO contacts). An exceedingly important internationalization stimulus was the foundation of the Center for Economic Research (CentER) in 1993 by Professor Arie Kapteyn. This was the major prelude to an international publication climate, international academic staff appointments, exchanges with international universities and top-ranking positions for Tilburg economists in national and international rankings. In 1995, there were 85 international exchange students from 15 nations. The next main impulse came when the curricula were internationalized from the end of the 20th century onwards, starting with the Master’s programs and followed by several Bachelor’s programs, such as International Business Administration, Liberal Arts, Global Management of Social Issues and Global Law. In 2017, 41 out 71 study programs were English-taught, and there were well over 1,300 international degree students.

Added value

On the added value of international students, Dean Lex Meijdam (TiSEM) had the following to say in Univers in 2013: “They’re extremely well motivated. You don’t come all the way from China to the Netherlands to revel. Their mentality is entirely different, and I hope the Dutch students will learn a thing or two from them.” More than 300 staff with non-Dutch backgrounds were working at Tilburg University, and its name has indeed been Anglicized since 2010 to underline its international character. Students are now encouraged to spend part of their program or do a traineeship abroad. All Bachelor’s programs have a so-called Mobility Window enabling students to spend six months abroad, both inside and outside Europe, without falling behind with their studies. To this purpose, the International Office is liaising with well over 300 partner universities worldwide, and this number is on the up. These partnerships also mean that the University is receiving some 600 foreign students annually. An International Campus is now being promoted. Student and study associations are having their internationalization projects funded, and the new educational profile dedicates a lot of space to developing intercultural awareness and skills. And, last but not least, more and more services for international students are being developed, such as immigration support and accommodation planning. New student accommodation has become available in Talent Square, a complex mainly targeting international students and opened in 2011.