24/04/2026
FRIENDS SINCE UNI | 👭🏼In our series ‘Friends Since Uni’, we spotlight friendships that started during student life and are still going strong today. Today, we’re introducing Bertram & Marc, who met during their studies in Groningen and have been friends ever since.
🎓How did you first meet during your time at university?
It was 1991. Marc met my flatmate during his lecture and it turned out we were neighbours. That was actually the start of our friendship.
🤝What has kept your friendship strong over the years?
We’ve welcomed Marc into our group of 17 Tukker-friends from Twente, as a sort of integration project (he’s from Drenthe). Everyone has since gone their separate ways, but we still go away for a weekend with that group every year and we also go out for a bite to eat together several times during the year. On top of that, there are concerts and sporting weekends such as skiing or, more recently, padel in Valencia. And there’s the unspoken understanding that if you need each other, you’re there for one another. That can be on a personal level, but also professionally. Brainstorming and bouncing ideas off each other. Never a harsh word, even though we’re quite direct with one another.
🔮What is your favorite Groningen memory you share?
The first thing that springs to mind is a party at Marc’s house. Wild! The police turned up at the door early, and the beer and other drinks ran out too quickly. But stumbling out of the pub together just as the city was waking up again, with the market stalls already set up, is also something we still vividly remember.
❤️What do you miss most about your student days?
Being carefree. As a student, the world is still wide open; you can do anything, and you feel little sense of responsibility. Now, with children and so on, the responsibility is naturally different.
👉 Swipe to see Bertram & Marc then vs. now.
