Work
Before entering politics, Ritzen worked, among other places, at the Erasmus Universiteit, Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen (now Radboud University), and at the University of California, Berkeley.
In 1989 he became Minister of Education and Sciences in the cabinet Lubbers 3. In the same cabinet he was Minister of Welfare, Health, and Culture for a month in 1994. That same year, with the installation of the cabinet Kok 1, he became Minister of Education, Culture, and Sciences.
As a minister he introduced the OV-studentenkaart in 1990, a card giving free public transportation to students, and the Prestatiebeurs, a new form of student financing. The introduction of the Prestatiebeurs lead to great resistance from the LSVb.
After his last ministership he became one of the 30 vicepresidents of the Worldbank.
He has been president of Universiteit Maastricht from 2003 until February 2011.
Read more about this topic: Jo Ritzen
Famous quotes containing the word work:
“‘Tis not need we know our every thought
Or see the work shop where each mask is wrought
Wherefrom we view the world of box and pit,
Careless of wear, just so the mask shall fit
And serve our jape’s turn for a night or two.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“The dominant and most deep-dyed trait of the journalist is his timorousness. Where the novelist fearlessly plunges into the water of self-exposure, the journalist stands trembling on the shore in his beach robe.... The journalist confines himself to the clean, gentlemanly work of exposing the griefs and shames of others.”
—Janet Malcolm (b. 1934)