“Panic.” That is the reaction of employees and students at the Erasmus School of Economics in Rotterdam to the outcomes of the agreement that the coalition parties have concluded with the opposition. “The conversation is about nothing else,” says Jan Stoop, associate professor and co-chairman of the Young Erasmus Academy, a network of “young, ambitious researchers” at Erasmus University. Some of the cuts in science and education have been scrapped, and the scrapping of the late study fine is good news for students.
But the fact that the discounts on research grants are still intact, amounting to half a billion euros, together with the intention to admit fewer foreign students and to preferably use Dutch as the working language, all of this is not working for scientists.
“These intentions have a disastrous effect,” say senior lecturer Stoop and his colleague Sophie van der Zee, also training director of behavioral economics at the institute. The first foreign teachers have already announced that they are considering leaving. Stoop: “If lectures have to be given in Dutch, many foreign teachers will not be able to do so.” Van der Zee: “It seems that this government is focusing on ‘Netherlands first’. But science is international and articles are published in English. If the Netherlands were to no longer participate in this, it would take much longer before you could share knowledge with each other.”
Stoop and Van der Zee predict that not only foreign teachers will drop out, but also that PhD students will find it even more difficult than now to find a research job and will move abroad. “We are losing all that talent,” says Van der Zee. Without money for starter grants and incentive grants for scientists, the remaining, mostly Dutch university employees will have to spend even more time writing research proposals to obtain subsidies elsewhere.
In addition, universities receive much less tuition fees if the number of foreign students is limited. While students from outside the European Union in particular bring in a lot of money. Stoop: “In any case, this will lead to shrinkage.” According to them, vacancies in Rotterdam are already only being opened if a position held by a departing employee cannot absolutely disappear. “All in all, the workload of the remaining employees will increase enormously,” warns Van der Zee.
‘This leads to a decline in prosperity’
The united universities of the Netherlands are “hugely disappointed” with the political deal between the coalition and opposition, says chairman Caspar van den Berg. “You can only be satisfied with this deal if you are very deep in the bubble in The Hague.”
According to him, the cuts can be equated to the closure of two small universities. According to him, the “social costs” of the cuts are five times higher than the savings themselves. “This leads to a decline in prosperity.” According to him, the cuts to science also go directly against what the government itself says it considers important. “This government wants a resilient, safe and sustainable society and expects a lot from innovation. The government’s government program contains the word ‘innovation’ 85 times. Then you would expect to open the tap for scientific research, but the opposite happens. Knowledge is the most important raw material in the Netherlands. Without knowledge you cannot accelerate housing construction or increase public safety. We are needed for that.” Courses will have to close, he expects, and scientists will disappear from the Netherlands. “While other European countries are now investing in knowledge to catch up with the United States and China, this government is taking the opposite turn.”
The Association of Universities of Applied Sciences is less negative. Chairman Maurice Limmen states that the agreement “unfortunately still leads to significant cuts” but that the cancellation of the late student fine in particular is “positive news”, according to a statement. The MBO Council for Secondary Vocational Education sees “little reason for optimism” in the adjusted plans, such as the cancellation of a fund to help students with an internship in healthcare.
Vulnerable children suffer
In addition to higher and secondary education, primary and secondary education will also feel the pain of the cuts. For example, the PO Council, the sector association for primary education, is concerned about the removal of subsidies for the ‘rich school day’, activities that a school offers in addition to ‘normal’ lessons. “These cuts are at the expense of the most vulnerable children,” says chairman Freddy Weima. “This government would like to work on greater social security, but is now doing exactly the opposite.”
One of the schools that offers the activities is Kaleidoscoop primary school in Schiedam-Oost: on Mondays, after regular lessons, children receive dance, music, sports, cooking or archery, among other things. Director Christelle Lacassagne: “We are in a neighborhood with relatively many residents who have difficulty making ends meet. Children often do not come into contact with anything other than their own street or school. Through these activities they broaden their worldview and learn something in a familiar environment that they can enjoy for the rest of their lives.” It is not the first time that the school starts an activity with a subsidy that disappears a few years later. “You can’t build on it.”