For a long time, the University of Groningen had strong roots in its own region and modest international ambitions. This began to change in the first decade of the 21st century. After years of moderate growth, international student and staff numbers suddenly grew by leaps and bounds. At the same time, the university began to rise in international rankings. The brain behind this policy was the ambitious president of the board of the university, Sibrand Poppema, who dreamt of putting Groningen on the map as an international research university. But his ambition went even further than that: his goal was for Groningen to become internationally renowned with a campus in China. A plan that met with much resistance.

The world as a stage

In early 2020, a casual passer-by strolling across the Academieplein or Zernike Campus is more likely to be accosted in English than in Dutch. With almost 8,000 international Bachelor's and Master's students from 125 different countries (out of a total of 33,000 students), the University of Groningen is a serious player in the international student market. In comparison, Groningen only had 300 regular international students at the turn of the century, mostly from Germany, followed at some distance by China. An incredible metamorphosis had taken place in less than 20 years.

In the late 1990s, attention shifted from recruiting and sending students abroad to actively attracting regular students. The university campaigned in Germany and attended international education fairs in Asia and Latin America. More attention was devoted to welcoming and guiding international students who, starting in 2002, were met with a welcoming ceremony first held in the Aula of the Academy Building, and when that became too small in the Martinikerk and cultural centre De Oosterpoort. The international staff numbers were also grow- ing fast. Whereas in 2006 less than one-quarter of the research staff (including PhD students) came from abroad, by 2018 this figure had increased to nearly 50%. How did the university manage to dramatically increase international student and staff numbers in such a short period of time?

The first step was the introduction of a uniform Bachelor's and Master's system to replace a Dutch educational system that was often incomprehensible to outsiders. In 1999, the Ministers of Education from 29 European countries met in Bologna to sign an agreement on a uniform system of higher education for all European countries.