Update Executive Board: Parliament debates education cuts and self-governance
The Schoof cabinet has presented its budget. As expected, higher education is facing severe cuts. In the coming period, the Executive Board will regularly look at the consequences of what it deems an irresponsible policy.
The House of Representatives debated the cuts to education in the Spring Memorandum with Eppo Bruins, the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, on 23 April. Following questions from various political parties, Bruins addressed the universities’ proposal for self-governance and the possible consequences of this for the Balanced Internationalisation Bill (WiB) and the TAO (Toets Anderstalig Onderwijs; an evaluation of whether permission will be granted to teach a programme in a language other than Dutch), which is part of this bill.
Bruins promised the MPs that he would present a memorandum of amendment to the WiB by the summer that does justice to both the universities’ plans and the aims of the bill.
So no decision has been made as yet about self-governance (for more information see our update from 15 April). For the universities, it remains absolutely clear that scrapping the language assessment for the existing bachelor’s programmes is a firm condition of our proposal. We will continue to discuss the matter with Minister Bruins through the Universities of the Netherlands (UNL).
In a LinkedIn post published yesterday, Bruins reflected on Wednesday’s parliamentary debate: ‘Important debate in the House of Representatives yesterday, about the self-governance plan the universities presented last week. It's a significant step that they are now jointly taking national responsibility for ensuring efficiency of the programmes they offer, for both the labour shortages and the range of programmes in the regions.I’m going to look at the plan in more detail. And as I have promised the House and the Senate, I will take that plan into account in my decision on the Balanced Internationalisation Bill (WiB). I will submit the promised memorandum of amendment by the summer. That will provide more clarity.’