Rianne Letschert: smart, kind and respectful of press freedom

In December 2025, Rianne Letschert suddenly found herself in the spotlight of national politics. She was going to lead the coalition negotiations among D66, CDA, and VVD in the role of informateur. In a press conference to introduce herself to journalists, she said that she had received the invitation while in her car. "I almost crashed into the guardrail." She found the assignment both honourable and exciting.

One of the journalists present asked her about her style: how would she describe her approach? "Focused on the content, not the person," she replied. "I'm also warm in my relationships." It may sound trite, but others say it's true.

Victimology
Rianne Letschert (1976) grew up in Stiphout, in the Brabant region of the Netherlands. She studied International Law and then chose a scientific career. She obtained her PhD from Tilburg University in 2005, with a thesis on the position of minorities in International Law. Seven years later, she became a Professor of Victimology in Tilburg. She conducted research into victims of war violence, among other topics. She joined The Young Academy, a society of relatively young top scientists looking to improve academia in 2013 and became its chair two years later.

She was actually set to become the dean of Tilburg's Faculty of Law in 2016 when she was offered the position of Rector at Maastricht University. She did not pass up the opportunity. At the age of 39, she became the youngest woman ever to occupy the position of rector magnificus in the Netherlands. In 2021, she moved up a notch and became the President of Maastricht University.

Free press
Wendy Degens, editor-in-chief of Maastricht University's newspaper Observant, describes Letschert as friendly and attentive. "One of the university staff lost her mother, and Letschert texted her to wish her strength on Mother's Day."

Letschert also values a free press greatly. “Sometimes, we write critical articles that she doesn’t like,” says Degens. “She reacts to them occasionally, but it has never had any consequences. We can be the university's ‘watchdog’, and she's always willing to talk to us.” For example, Observant wanted to send a weekly newsletter to all students and staff, but was unable to do so under the previous university presidents. Letschert agreed right away.

As an administrator, she does not shy away from lobbying. Degens: "She often went to The Hague to talk about internationalisation. She was supported by the entire region: mayors, the province and other educational institutions. She has charm, but she's also very smart. She identifies what she wants to tackle and then pursues those things."

Better academy
Both at The Young Academy and later as a university administrator, Letschert has been concerned with “recognition and rewards”, the idea that academics shouldn't be solely evaluated by how many articles they publish in reputable journals. After all, scientists can have other talents, such as leadership, teaching or public outreach. She firmly believes that academics should be able to choose different career paths, an ideal also espoused by the Executive Board of Utrecht University, which is gradually implementing steps in this direction.

Letschert has witnessed the consequences of rigidly counting scientific publications in her own field. Writing annotations on case law was hardly valued anymore and had turned into a hobby, she said in 2015 at a meeting on evaluation systems and academic careers. At the time, she argued that the main problem was that debates about the system were often led by its winners. "Once we are in control, we have to do something about it," she told fellow young scientists. 

Jeroen de Ridder, a Professor of Philosophy at VU Amsterdam, knows her from that time, although he joined The Young Academy a little later. He was appointed chair of the organisation two years after her. "What I remember most is that she's incredibly kind. You might think that administrators are 'important' people who only talk to other 'important' people, but she wasn’t like that. She took plenty of time to get to know new members of The Young Academy, and the conversations were always pleasant, entertaining and informative." De Ridder says that, even after she left the young Academy and became a rector, she still wanted to catch up with him every few months to discuss the society's plans and projects. "It's quite remarkable that a rector would make time for that."

Letschert did not abandon her ideals either. She continued to fight for recognition and rewards even after taking the helm in Maastricht. "A department simply needs different types of people, with talents in the fields of research, education, leadership and social impact," she explained in 2020. "A football team doesn’t have only strikers or goalkeepers."

Rianne Letschert. Photo by Arjen Schmitz, Maastricht University

Hack
Maastricht University has had its fair share of dramatic events over the past ten years. In 2019, the university's systems were hijacked by hackers. The university ultimately caved to blackmail and paid a ransom in bitcoin, reasoning that the damage would be too great otherwise. Years later, thanks to the police, the bitcoins were returned to the university and had increased in value.

And let's not forget the coronavirus pandemic. Under her leadership, Maastricht University was the first university in the Netherlands to break its piggy bank open. "We must invest now and release reserves. After all, those reserves are intended for times of crisis," Letschert said at the time. 

Maastricht has recently been the site of many protests and occupations, as have other Dutch universities. An event with a pro-Israeli speaker was disrupted by demonstrators, after which the university cancelled another meeting for safety reasons, a decision that was met with fierce criticism.

Letschert was also criticised for asking the police to clear a university building that had been occupied by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, and for joining a task force to combat anti-Semitism set up by the Schoof cabinet. The government did so partly in response to the protests that took place at Dutch universities, which sometimes made Jewish students and staff feel unsafe.

Not modest
Over the years, she became politically active and joined the centrist party D66. In 2018, she forged a coalition between the mayor and the aldermen in Maastricht, leading parties with very different visions to negotiate, including CDA, D66, VVD, GroenLinks, SP and the Senior Citizens' Party.

Letschert stands out from the crowd. In 2019, for example, she was voted Woman of the Year, which did not come out of the blue as she had been approached several times before. "Look, it's not my ambition to be in the spotlight, but I thought: 'You know what? I'll do it, I'll show what I can do,’" she told Observant. ‘"I'll just be the token woman from time to time, in the hope that the picture will change and more women will occupy senior positions. I also hope the debate about working women will acquire a different tone."

Her style became increasingly appreciated in D66, at least by party leader Rob Jetten. She had previously been approached for a position in Mark Rutte's fourth cabinet, but she felt it was too early and turned it down. However, it was no secret that she would like to become a minister. "Being a minister is a dog's job, not an honour position," Letschert said last August to the daily newspaper De Limburger. Even so, she felt prepared to do it. "If everyone passes up complicated jobs, we won't get anywhere." So, once she became an informateur, everyone could guess that the next step would be the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. She will be sworn in on 23 February, getting an opportunity to show whether her much-praised style can make a difference in the polarised politics of the Netherlands.