By Annemieke Klijn

Jean Guillaume Hubert, or ‘Sjeng’, Tans (1912-1993) was one of the founders of Maastricht University. Tans was a man with determination. As a Catholic member of the Labour Party (PvdA), he sought to reconcile Catholicism with socialism. After he developed expertise as his party’s education specialist in the national parliament, he played a crucial role in the Limburg lobby aimed at carrying off the nation’s eighth medical faculty in the second half of the 1960s. A smart and activist politician, he was named chair of the Eighth Medical Faculty Preparatory Commission in 1970. He needed al his inventiveness to get this project off the ground, it being the first program of a university to be founded. No wonder, the official establishment of the State University Limburg on 9 January 1976 represented his finest hour. Tans served as the first chairman of its Executive Board from 1976 to late 1978. Sjeng Tans grew up in a Catholic middleclass family in the Maastricht Boschstraatkwartier, a working class neighbourhood hit hard by the crisis of the 1930s. Right after the Second World War, in 1946, he became a member of the PvdA. Working as a teacher of Dutch at a Catholic school, Tans also became a quite active party member, and this brought him into conflict with the local Catholic establishment. He felt forced to give up his job, became a fulltime politician, and after winning a seat in the House of Representatives he continuously commuted between Maastricht and The Hague. As education specialist he insisted on the need for equal opportunity and educational innovation. From 1965 to 1969 he was party chairman of the PvdA, an important post at the time. Because of his intermediary role between the old and young and left and right socialists in party, he ended up in a deadlock position. Tans next shifted his attention to Limburg. In 1969 Maastricht managed to carry off the ‘eighth’ medical faculty by stressing three reasons: the need for equal distribution of academic education across the country, compensation for the closure of the Limburg coal mines, and the need for a Dutch university at the cultural crossroads with Germany and the French-speaking world. The selection of Maastricht was a political decision. Limburg had become an electoral hunting ground after its predominantly Catholic culture began to erode by the onset of secularization in the 1960s. Education minister Gerard Veringa, himself a member of the Catholic Popular Party (KVP), appointed Tans in 1970 as chairman of the Eighth Medical Faculty Preparatory Commission that should operate ‘within the context of a university to be founded’. It came in handy that Tans was thoroughly familiar with the political mores of both Limburg and The Hague. Veringa believed Tans to be a ‘fierce, dogged type’ who would not soon give up. The preparatory commission hardly followed a carefully planned route. Time and again, it was forced to respond to unforeseen developments. For example, local doctors came into action, while sudden economic decline prompted austerity measures. Moreover, it was questionable whether the country’s overall training capacity for physicians needed to be expanded at all. The other universities were not really waiting for a newcomer. Tans understood in time that the founding of the ‘eighth’ could only be justified if Maastricht would present it as an educational experiment. He hired Harmen Tiddens, a professor of methodology in medical education, and Wijnand Wijnen, an education psychologist, who argued for a ‘new’ basic philosophy. In 1974, Tans managed to convince his two fellow party members in charge of the education ministry – minister Jos van Kemenade and state secretary Ger Klein – that the medical faculty should begin its teaching effort as quickly as possible. Riding a favourable political wind, Tans wanted to establish a point of no return. After formulating a lex specialis, the State University Limburg was formally opened on 9 January 1976. Tans became the first chairman of the Executive Board and as such he put much effort in particular in developing new study programs and the building of an academic hospital.

By Annemieke Klijn

Jean Guillaume Hubert, or ‘Sjeng’, Tans (1912-1993) was one of the founders of Maastricht University. Tans was a man with determination. As a Catholic member of the Labour Party (PvdA), he sought to reconcile Catholicism with socialism. After he developed expertise as his party’s education specialist in the national parliament, he played a crucial role in the Limburg lobby aimed at carrying off the nation’s eighth medical faculty in the second half of the 1960s. A smart and activist politician, he was named chair of the Eighth Medical Faculty Preparatory Commission in 1970. He needed al his inventiveness to get this project off the ground, it being the first program of a university to be founded. No wonder, the official establishment of the State University Limburg on 9 January 1976 represented his finest hour. Tans served as the first chairman of its Executive Board from 1976 to late 1978. Sjeng Tans grew up in a Catholic middleclass family in the Maastricht Boschstraatkwartier, a working class neighbourhood hit hard by the crisis of the 1930s. Right after the Second World War, in 1946, he became a member of the PvdA. Working as a teacher of Dutch at a Catholic school, Tans also became a quite active party member, and this brought him into conflict with the local Catholic establishment. He felt forced to give up his job, became a fulltime politician, and after winning a seat in the House of Representatives he continuously commuted between Maastricht and The Hague. As education specialist he insisted on the need for equal opportunity and educational innovation. From 1965 to 1969 he was party chairman of the PvdA, an important post at the time. Because of his intermediary role between the old and young and left and right socialists in party, he ended up in a deadlock position. Tans next shifted his attention to Limburg. In 1969 Maastricht managed to carry off the ‘eighth’ medical faculty by stressing three reasons: the need for equal distribution of academic education across the country, compensation for the closure of the Limburg coal mines, and the need for a Dutch university at the cultural crossroads with Germany and the French-speaking world. The selection of Maastricht was a political decision. Limburg had become an electoral hunting ground after its predominantly Catholic culture began to erode by the onset of secularization in the 1960s. Education minister Gerard Veringa, himself a member of the Catholic Popular Party (KVP), appointed Tans in 1970 as chairman of the Eighth Medical Faculty Preparatory Commission that should operate ‘within the context of a university to be founded’. It came in handy that Tans was thoroughly familiar with the political mores of both Limburg and The Hague. Veringa believed Tans to be a ‘fierce, dogged type’ who would not soon give up. The preparatory commission hardly followed a carefully planned route. Time and again, it was forced to respond to unforeseen developments. For example, local doctors came into action, while sudden economic decline prompted austerity measures. Moreover, it was questionable whether the country’s overall training capacity for physicians needed to be expanded at all. The other universities were not really waiting for a newcomer. Tans understood in time that the founding of the ‘eighth’ could only be justified if Maastricht would present it as an educational experiment. He hired Harmen Tiddens, a professor of methodology in medical education, and Wijnand Wijnen, an education psychologist, who argued for a ‘new’ basic philosophy. In 1974, Tans managed to convince his two fellow party members in charge of the education ministry – minister Jos van Kemenade and state secretary Ger Klein – that the medical faculty should begin its teaching effort as quickly as possible. Riding a favourable political wind, Tans wanted to establish a point of no return. After formulating a lex specialis, the State University Limburg was formally opened on 9 January 1976. Tans became the first chairman of the Executive Board and as such he put much effort in particular in developing new study programs and the building of an academic hospital.