TV host Arjen Lubach pays round of beer in Utrecht

The students knew that something was going to happen and that it would have something to do with Arjen Lubach's television show, as they had all given their consent to be filmed.

What they did not know was that Lubach was hidden behind the bar at Café De Stadsgenoot, whre the German study association, Aufschwung, hangs out. The surprised faces in a segment of Lubach's TV show aired on Tuesday evening were therefore genuine. So were all the happy faces. After all, Lubach was there for a good reason: his presence in Utrecht meant that the number of students enrolled in the German programme has increased significantly this year.

Earlier this year, Lubach promised on his show to treat first-year students to a round of beer if the German programme got ten or more first-year students. The talk show host considered it unacceptable that the German programme had attracted so few students that UU even decided to discontinue it altogether. This year is the last time that first-year students in Utrecht will be able to join German as an independent programme.

On Monday, there were no fewer than twenty freshers at De Stadsgenoot. That is five times more than the number of first-year students enrolled last year. Professor of German Ewout van der Knaap is delighted, as he views the growth as a sign that the language and the programme are still very much alive in the Netherlands.

"Of course, we still think it's a shame that the Bachelor's programme is being discontinued, but the increase in student numbers shows the enthusiasm for our field, which is relevant for the new Bachelor's programme we are working on, of which German will be a part."

When asked to what extent Arjen Lubach has contributed to the growth, Van der Knaap notes that at least one of the twenty students indicates that they chose to study German because of the appeal.

According to Van der Knaap, the campaign “Gebt uns ein*n Studi!” may have played a major role as well. In this campaign, secondary school German teachers were asked to motivate their pupils to become German teachers themselves or choose to study German at the university level.

A DUB article published this spring revealed that it remains unclear exactly how many students will be starting their first year of university studies in German. UU says it will not be able to provide reliable figures on the exact number of enrolments until early November.

Van der Knaap is not particularly concerned: “I know that we now have twenty students, because they have arrived. They are a really nice and interested group.”