Netherlands Alumni Associations in Asia

By Evert Jongens

Some 300 courses are currently offered each year which are followed by over 4000 participants. It is estimated that some 60,000 alumni have been trained in the Netherlands after the first students arrived in the Netherlands in 1952. In an increasingly globalized world good networks are of prime importance. For this reason NUFFIC (The Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education) has been promoting the creation of Netherlands Alumni Associations (NAAs) most of them in Asia (Indonesia, Korea, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Nepal, the Philippines, and Singapore). The most successful NAA operates in Sri Lanka and has 350 members. Its secretariat is accommo- dated in the Dutch Period Museum in Colombo, a former orphanage which was set up by the VOC (United Dutch East India Company) during the period that this company dominated the coastal provinces of Ceylon (1656-1796).

Alumni from Sri Lanka
With the assistance of the the Netherlands Alumni Association of Lanka [NAAL], the orphanage was restored as a Dutch Period Museum and opened by President Jayewardena in 1982. Especially for a small country like the Netherlands which cannot (or does not want to) afford to appoint cultural attaches at smaller embassies, a Netherlands Alumni Association can function as a surrogate. In Sri Lanka the association has been active in organizing lectures, filmshows, exhibitions, and providing information on international programmes in the Netherlands. It has also been closely involved in the twinning arrangement between the Srilankan city of Galle and the Dutch municipality of Velsen. Velsen has assisted Galle with various projects such as the building of 50 houses for fishermen and two community centres. Galle is a city with many remains of the Dutch period in Sri Lanka. Inside the Dutch fort, which has been well maintained, there are still 400 houses dating back to VOC times. These buildings are of dual parentage, as their architecture betrays both European and Ceylonese influences. In 1987 the Galle fort was placed on the World Heritage list of the UNESCO.
In February 1995 an international seminar on European architecture was held in Colom- bo. As a follow-up eight Sri Lankan architects attended a three-month course on integra- ted urban revitalization and heritage in Sri Lanka at the Institute for Housing Studies in Rotterdam. Every year some 50 Sri Lankans attend an international programme in the Netherlands. The Stichting Nederland-Sri Lanka which was instrumental in raising funds for the restoration of the Dutch Period Museum keeps in touch with these participants and stimulates their joining of the NAAL on their return home.
In February 1996 the NAAL will celebrate its 25th anniversary. The festivities include a seminar in which staff members of Dutch institutes will brief their alumni on recent developments. Fostering alumni activities has proved to be a useful contribution to permanent links between academics all over the world.

Evert Jongens is Director of the Stichting Nederland-Sri Lanka