Text: Nicole HanssenPhoto: Franco Gori16If your work is also your hobbyProfessor Aalt Willem Heringa,Dean of the Faculty of LawHe loves education, students, young people.You only have to read his online Deanblogto feel the enthusiasm and dedicationwith which he welcomes the <strong>new</strong> cropsof students and helps graduates preparethemselves for the outside world. He inheritedhis love of education from his father,who was principal of a grammar schoolfor many years. “New students arrive hererather like high school first-formers. Four,five, six years later, they leave as adults. It’sabsolutely fascinating. Young people areso keen and so competent. We train them,provide them with the knowledge theyneed to make something of their lives. It’sa long-term investment and it is absolutelyessential. We need good education. Ultimately,the students are the ones who willdevelop into young adults and hopefullymake a difference to society.”Social involvementThis was Heringa’s own reason for choosingto study law: social involvement. Well,it was one of the reasons. Another reason(“like so many other law students”) wasthat he couldn’t find anything else thatappealed to him. The sciences were out ofthe question (“it’s not in my genes”) and hedid not want to take one of those nondescriptsubjects like sociology, which wereso popular in the 1970s. The work he sawthe lawyers in his family doing appealed tohim: concrete, language-based, up-to-date,at the sharp end of society. He decidedto study in Leiden. After graduating, heContinuUM | Year 5 | number 2 | December 2006He should have gone into forestry according to the test he took at highschool, designed to help students choose a degree programme. It was abad test that gave poor advice, was his conclusion. He opted for a career inwhich he would be able to make a real contribution to the world around him:law. To be precise, comparative law and human rights. He hopes to passthis awareness of social involvement on to the next generations. And whocould be in a better position to do this than the Dean of the <strong>Maastricht</strong>Faculty of Law? The fact that he likes “organising and contemplating”upholds firm ideas about the path he intends to take and is “inflexible” inhis goals, makes him the perfect choice for this position. Particularly duringthe past three years, when unavoidable cutbacks of one and a half millionEuros meant that the faculty was sorely in need of the qualities he had tooffer. Enter: Aalt Willem Heringa.
embarked on a career there as a researchheading. The European Law School becamea healthier financial and organisationalacross as friendly, open and interested.scientist in constitutional law, specialisinga reality years after the original plan, andcondition than three years ago.Our interview confirms what I had learnedin Human Rights Law and Comparativenowadays we even have the complete“I took a hard line regarding theabout him during my prior research. A manConstitutional Law. This too was all aboutEnglish-language version we hadreorganisation process: this is the pathwith a heart for what he believes in, whosocial involvement: people in society, basicenvisaged. So fifteen years later, theI have chosen, these are the choices Idoes what is necessary to achieve his goals.values that should apply to everyone.traditional law programme in <strong>Maastricht</strong>have made, these are the goals I have set.A man who can talk passionately aboutModest as he is about his own contributionhas been turned completely upside down.”Anyone who doesn’t agree will have tohis wife, who is a painter, and his own(he always speaks in the third person), heconvince me. But until someone does,three young students aged 19, 21 and 23.refers to his research in the area of humanSo good education has his full attention.I’m sticking to this path. I was very uncom-His youngest daughter is following in herrights as one of best achievements of hisBut could you describe the educationpromising and I can imagine that this putfather’s footsteps by studying law, and thescientific career.currently being given at the <strong>Maastricht</strong>some people’s backs up.”middle one has opted for psychology.No longer a scientistFaculty of Law as good? In the NetherlandsGuide to Higher Education published lastHeringa realises that a lot of the people heworks with see him as a “firm leader”, who“They’re great girls and we are a very closefamily. I am not really cut out to be a houseHowever, Heringa can no longer callautumn, the law programme only attainedis “inflexible”. This firmness extends furtherhusband. I lead a busy life and my work ishimself a scientist; logically, the Dean isa poor seventh place. In the special issue ofthan his work and can also be seen on thevery important. It’s a kind of hobby thatexcused from publishing the threeElsevier that appeared later, “Studeren”, thehockey pitch every week. He won’t put upcarries on after six o’clock simply becausecompulsory pieces of work expected of all<strong>Maastricht</strong> programme in Dutch Law waswith any nonsense during a match. “I justI enjoy it. It’s my greatest passion.researchers every year. “The content of myawarded joint fourth place.don’t like losing, even at the veteran level.It’s a decision you take consciously, awork has obviously changed considerablyBy no means good, admits the Dean with-I put everything I have into my game andresponsibility that you take on. This doesn’tover the years. I have very little time forout hesitation, but understandable. “On theI expect the rest of team to do the same.”mean that I don’t have time for my familyresearch. Managing is my main task, andone hand, this is only the second year since“So I suppose I am quite firm, but thator other things. It just means that I havethat’s fine with me. I’ve always enjoyedthe introduction of the Bachelor/Masterdoesn’t mean that I trample all over otherdifferent priorities. It might take me sixorganising, making sure that things runsystem. This entailed considerable changespeople. I lie awake worrying about thingsmonths to get round to fixing a loosesmoothly.to our programmes. At the same time, wetoo. About individual cases, personalwire that my family has been complaining17But I never imagined I would enjoy it thiswere also undergoing a reorganisation thatstories of people who have lost their jobs,about, and I rarely choose to spend mymuch. Whether we are talking about fallingrequired a lot of effort. We simply lackedsituations that I was totally unable tofree time with other relations. You won’tnumbers of students, a reorganisation orthe time for devising improvements to ourresolve. I know you have to accept setbacksfind me at one of those annual familythe declining quality of education, I alwayseducation. So the poor assessment didn’tlike these simply because you can’t dotree-planting events somewhere in thesee things as a challenge rather than acome completely out of the blue. Thisanything to change them. But it’s easiernorth of the country. Looking back, it’sproblem.”doesn’t make it all right, but I would rathersaid than done.”probably just as well that I didn’t chooseGood educationuse my energy making sure that we comeup with suitable swift improvements than“On the whole, I am happy with thepresent state of affairs. It was a harda career in forestry!”In the 19 years that Heringa has worked atmaking excuses for something that canslog at times, but things are graduallythe <strong>Maastricht</strong> Faculty of Law, educationalno longer be changed. You can make hugeimproving now. Our main concern is toadvancement and improvement have al-leaps from a seventh place, and this is oneachieve a stable balance after all theways been high on the agenda. One of theof our <strong>new</strong> goals: to improve the quality ofmanagerial changes that have taken place.”most important developments in whichour education so that the students give usHe is modest about his role. “I don’t reallyhe had a hand was the introduction of thea good assessment next year.”think about myself in this respect. I tendbachelor’s programme at the European LawSchool (ELS). “The idea of a European LawReorganisationto think it could easily have been someoneelse in my shoes overseeing the start ofSchool was first broached in the 1990s.We initially set up an English-languageMaster’s programme MIC (Master inComparative and European Law) as a sortof pilot project. It was a huge success.It turned out that we had anticipated well,as Europe was starting to take on a moreprominent role. Once I have had an idea,I never forget where I was originallyTo his mind, the ‘old’ goals have beenachieved; the English-language track ofthe European Law School, the Master’sprogramme in Forensics, Criminology andAdministration of Justice, and also thereorganisation are amongst Heringa’s trophies.However, his efforts were not alwaysappreciated. The proposed cutbacks wereeventually made and the faculty is now inELS or the reorganisation. I haven’t got anygreat plans for the future. I’m enjoying myjob at the moment, but this might changea few years from now.”PassionsUncompromising, firm and inflexible hemay be, but the Dean of the Faculty of Lawis anything but unsympathetic. He comesIf you would like to readmore about the day-to-dayadventures of the Dean,visit his Deanblog via:http://www.rechten.unimaas.nl/blog/aaltwillemheringa.htmContinuUM | Year 5 | number 2 | December 2006
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