Utrecht Summer School: still going strong after 40 years

This summer, around 3,000 participants from the Netherlands and abroad are expected to join the summer school. They will immerse themselves in a discipline or topic of interest. The official opening of the fortieth edition of the Utrecht Summer School will take place on Tuesday at Centraal Museum, in the presence of the Rector, Wilco Hazeleger, and others. The first courses already began yesterday and today.

Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht are not the only ones offering courses and activities. Other Utrecht-based institutions, such as the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, the Utrecht School of the Arts and the University of Humanistic Studies, are also participating.

1986 – Signing ceremony at the Università di Bologna. At the university’s request, Utrecht University organised its first summer course, "Dutch Culture and Society". Jeroen Torenbeek can be seen on the far right of the photograph. The predecessor of the current director, Bettina Nelemans, established the Utrecht Summer School and developed it further. Photo: Utrecht Summer School Archive.

Diverse list of participants
The Utrecht Summer School offers about 170 courses in total. In addition to traditional teaching, where lecturers impart their knowledge, there are also symposia and hackathons.

Other knowledge institutions or social partners may also be involved. For instance, this year, UNESCO is collaborating with the course Foundations of Planetary Health.

In many courses, the list of participants is highly diverse, involving undergraduates, postgraduates, PhD students, postdocs and professionals. The idea is that students, researchers and professionals who would not normally cross paths can learn from one another and share knowledge.

Visit the Utrecht Summer School website for the full programme.

2008 – A class from the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences poses in the Janskerk, where the opening ceremony was often held in the past. Photo: Utrecht Summer School archive.

2013 – Course at the Utrecht Summer School. Photo: Utrecht Summer School archive

Intelligent holidays
The Utrecht Summer School began in 1986 as a four-week course entitled Dutch Culture & Society. Over the years, this initiative has grown into one of the largest summer schools in Europe. DUB has written several times about this “intelligent way of spending your holidays.” In 2020, due to the pandemic, the event had to make do with a scaled-down, largely digital format.

2021 – Lecture in the auditorium of the Utrecht University Hall, with 1.5-metre social distancing. Photo: Bettina Nelemans

Mr Summer School
Jeroen Torenbeek, founder of the Utrecht Summer School and predecessor to the current director, Bettina Nelemans, could never have imagined that a mission to Italy he undertook more than forty years ago would lead to a recurring summer event that attracts thousands of international students to Utrecht.

Torenbeek, who later became director of the organisation and was awarded the honorary title "Mr Summer School", shared his written recollections of the very earliest days of the Utrecht Summer School with DUB.

As a young member of staff at what was then the Faculty of Arts, he was tasked in May 1984 with finding a summer school for Utrecht’s Italian students. He spoke Italian well and had no formal ties to the Italian department. And so, the Executive Board felt he was the right person to explore the possibilities.

Torenbeek travelled to Verona, Florence and Turin, amongst other places, but Bologna was the only place where anyone was excited to host the students from Utrecht. A professor there was willing to host the students from Utrecht, as long as students from Bologna could also come to Utrecht. 

Torenbeek was immediately interested. “That would broaden the scope of any Summer School we might set up in Utrecht. I took that message back to Utrecht.” The rest is history.

2022 – Canoeing on the Oudegracht. Photo: Bettina Nelemans

Sex and Drugs
During the first few years, it became apparent that an increasing number of partner universities, including Strasbourg, Madrid and Coimbra, wanted to send their students to Utrecht. The demand for courses on other subjects grew.

Departments and faculties began offering their own programmes, with the Summer School organising the promotion and enrolment. The Summer School also arranged temporary accommodation for the students. Nowadays, many stay on the University College Utrecht campus and at Utrecht Science Park, where international students are required to vacate their rooms during the summer.

2025 – Participants arrive at the Janskerkhof and check in at the Utrecht Summer School office. Photo: Bettina Nelemans.

2025 – European Cultures and Identities course, at De Drift. Photo: Bettina Nelemans.

The Summer School in Utrecht also expanded opportunities for Utrecht students to study elsewhere. Torenbeek writes with pride about courses such as "The Making of Europe", which involve two weeks in Rome, two in Utrecht and two in Berlin. He's also proud about a course on European art, with two weeks at NIKI, in Florence, Utrecht and Berlin.”

In an interview following his retirement in 2020, Torenbeek also mentioned a course that proved far less popular: "Sex, Drugs & Rock ’n’ Roll." That title proved difficult to market, partly because parents keep a close eye on what their child will do when taking an expensive course abroad. “In the end, there was only one enrolment and I had to cancel the course. It’s a shame, because I really believed in the content, so that was an expensive lesson.”