Reforms Loom Over Dutch Higher Education
Amongst measures proposed by the far right-led government in the Netherlands, the Minister of Education, Eppo Bruins presented a policy last week – “Managing international student flows” – to the Dutch parliament that will limit the number of international undergraduate students coming to study in the Netherlands by one-third and save the government €293 million.
Dutch universities are resisting these proposals, both within parliament and outside, where protests and demonstration are widespread. Former secretary general of Universities Netherlands and president of the board of the University of Groningen, Jouke de Vries called the government’s policy on higher education “short-sighted” in his speech at the opening of the university year.
“Rarely have I seen such a U-turn in policy as the recent policy change in higher education” he said.
Included in Bruins’ plans is a reduction in the use of English at Dutch universities and colleges so that no more than one-third of the classes in the majority of programmes will be in languages other than Dutch and a special committee will approve all bachelor degree courses which are English only.
Universities will be asked to apply a cap on the number of students in all non-Dutch degree courses. If the caps do not have the desired outcome, universities will be given less funding per student, Bruins said.
The far right-led government’s measures are likely to most directly affect European students who currently pay the same tuition as Dutch students (around €2,500 pa). The Dutch government subsidises each student by about €8,700. This means that having fewer European students means less government spending. Eric Boels, of the University of Amsterdam argues “However, with fewer international students, not only do the costs decrease, but also the benefits. For example, it quickly costs the taxpayer more than what the cutbacks yield and the knowledge economy is hit hard”
So, how does that affect Irish students? Firstly, there will be no impact on current students and little on those enrolling in 2025. Over the next year or two, there will be some self-regulation by the universities, with odd programme taught through English being withdrawn and an increasing cap on numbers in a few more programmes than is currently the case and the introduction of a selection procedures for those programmes. Sources have advised EUNICAS that the implementation of any government prescribed changes is likely to take at least two years, with the first stage bring the submission by each university to the Ministry of a justification of the offering of each programme offered through English. The Minister will reply, on a course-by-course basis.
Two years is long time in Politics!!!
