Universities and students shocked by austerity plans
The plans of the forming parties harm education and research, universities warn. For student organizations, the return of the long-term study penalty is a particularly unpleasant surprise. Colleges have “reason to worry.”
It is “a blow to students,” says Jouke de Vries, interim chairman of the umbrella association of the Universities of the Netherlands. The forming parties PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB want to cut several hundred million in higher education.
“This does not fit with the ambition of the forming parties to strengthen the knowledge economy and the earning capacity of the Netherlands,” notes De Vries. “With this we are putting the future of the young people in our country at risk.” UNL has calculated that the parties together will make structural cuts of 500 million on higher education and research. “This puts the position of 1,200 scientists at risk,” says UNL.
The Intercity Student Consultation (ISO) addresses students directly in its press release: “You have received blow after blow with the increase in tuition fees, a reduction in the basic grant and an interest rate that has increased five times.”
The basic grant for students living away from home has been temporarily increased by 164 euros per month due to inflation, and that amount will expire in September. The forming parties do not want to extend that increase. “Thousands of students are finding themselves in financial trouble again,” the ISO warns. “This is a hard blow for students who depend on a decent basic grant to make ends meet; they will deteriorate significantly in the coming academic year.”
The return of the long-study fine no one saw coming, says the ISO. It involves a fine of three thousand euros a year for students who are more than a year out of their bachelor's or master's degree. The fine will be especially bad for young people from low-income families, UNL also thinks. For them, it could raise the barrier to study.
Chairman Elisa Weehuizen of the National Student Union is very concerned. “This study fine will soon penalize all students who take a little longer to complete their studies. The question remains whether a year on the board or illness will still be a valid reason not to have to pay the fine.”
She expects that the pressure to perform among students will increase considerably, also because the parties have agreed not to relax the binding study advice. “This policy will be disastrous for student well-being. There is nothing to indicate that these parties are even remotely prepared to improve this. They ignore all the advice of experts in one go.”
The additional compensation for the so-called “unlucky generation” students of 1.4 billion is also much lower than promised before the elections. “That is 4 billion euros less than what Pieter Omtzigt of NSC had promised in his amendment.” She also finds the proposed cuts in science worrying: “It is up to students and institutions to voice a strong opposition in the coming months.”
The announced cuts “give cause for concern”, according to the universities of applied sciences. Additional resources are needed for higher vocational education, says chairman Maurice Limmen. He says it is striking that lifelong development is not mentioned in the main outline agreement.
The universities of applied sciences do feel “recognised in the main outline agreement” because of the attention paid to the role of higher education in the region. The government wants to take shrinking student numbers into account when financing training courses.
