Dear Alex

Congratulations on your new job! I happened to see the interview with you and your Max which was aired on April 17. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by how you answered the questions. I found your ideas on helping opportunities for business and education around the world very interesting and promising.

In 2008, visiting the Olympics, you enjoyed the company of our Tilburg University alumnus Lingxiao Qu. She was the Outstanding Olympic Volunteer at the Olympics in Beijing in 2008. She is an excellent example of a perfect alumnus: learning the local language, studying hard, integrating into the local culture and after graduation acting as ambassador for the institution. And being a native Chinese and having vast experience in hosting, she was the excellent hostess for you and your family during the Olympics.

Last November you visited Istanbul at the occasion of 400 years of diplomatic relations between your country and Turkey and attended a meeting on innovation organised by Tilburg University. Again you met an alumnus of Tilburg University, Atilla Aytekin, who is now a famous entrepreneur in the Netherlands, Turkey and India.

Recently the Social and Economic Council (SER) launched the report “Make it in the Netherlands!”. This report argues that “the Netherlands’ prosperity, its economy and its higher education sector will all benefit enormously if talented foreign students can be persuaded to study in the country and remain after graduating. Companies, public and non-profit organisations, educational institutions and government should make more vigorous combined efforts to attract and retain foreign students, and they should be guided by such factors as employment and labour market shortages much more than they are now.’’ As a matter of fact, you are running a non-profit organisation, our monarchy and you ‘hired’ the vice-CEO: Maxima from Argentina. So I call upon you to keep on the good work: continue to support actively the recruitment of  international students and scholars for our higher education sector for the benefit of your and our country! If you need any any help, advice and suggestions, you know where to find me!

Hans-Georg van Liempd is program manager at TiU and president of EAIE. He blogs for Univers.

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