Jozef Ritzen, a Dutch national, is President of Maastricht University since February 2003.
Mr. Ritzen was Vice President of the World Bank’s Development Economics Department from August 1999. In July 2001 he assumed the position Vice President of the World Bank's Human Development Network. Mr. Ritzen joined the Bank as Special Adviser to the Human Development Network in September 1998.
Prior to coming to the Bank, he was Minister of Education, Culture, and Science of The Netherlands, one of the longest-serving Ministers of Education in the world. During his term, he enacted a series of major reforms throughout the Dutch education system. He has also made significant contributions to agencies such as UNESCO and OECD, especially in the field of education and social cohesion. Prior to his appointment as Minister in 1989, Mr. Ritzen held academic appointments with Nijmegen University and Erasmus University in The Netherlands, the University of California-Berkeley and the Robert M. LaFollette Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US.
He has written or co-authored eleven books. Many articles written or co-authored by him are published in the fields of education, economics, public finance and development economics.
At present also involved in (selection):
- Member, Board of Trustees, Educational Testing Service
- Member, Board of Trustees, Open Society Initiative (Soros), Higher Education
- Chair, International Advisory Board, Nigeria Reform of Science, Technology and Innovation
- Member, Evaluation Team OECD PISA Project
- Advisor (ad hoc), World Bank, OECD, UNESCO
