Six thousand people expected in Utrecht at demonstration against higher education cuts
On Thursday November 14th, thousands of students and staff are expected to demonstrate in Utrecht against the cuts in higher education. What is at stake? Five questions to UvA professor and initiator of WOinAction Rens Bod.
1 billion is about to be cut in higher education. What does this imply?
“That starter grants and incentive grants will disappear, as will the newly established National Growth Fund (Nationaal Groeifonds) and the Research and Science Fund (Fonds voor Onderzoek en Wetenschap). This hits young researchers especially at the beginning of their careers. International students are also being cut back by reducing numbers through the even further tightened Internationalisation in Balance Act (WIB). A long-study penalty will be introduced, although the OCW minister has already signalled that it is likely to be scrapped. However, this will be replaced by an increase in tuition fees, so the outcome will stay the same. And then there have recently been the cuts in education subsidies, taking the cuts to €1.4 billion a year.”
Couldn’t universities get by with a bit less money?
“Absolutely not. In 2021, the consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers calculated that higher education was underfunded with nearly one and a half billion short. This was followed by hefty investments in the form of the ‘sectorplannen’: the Science and Research Fund and the National Growth Fund. Those investments are now all being reversed. It is what you call irresponsible and unreliable governance.”
“And not because there is a new vision but with the blunt axe. The 282 million for the long-study penalty is purely to make money for the state treasury. Education minister Eppo Bruins already let it be known that if the 282 million is not met because all students study very well that the money will then be cut from the first money flow. So the cuts are a goal in itself.”
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How many students and staff do you expect in Utrecht?
“Thousands. Mainly from Nijmegen, Leiden and Utrecht, because cuts have already been announced there within the university. Nijmegen University already expects about a thousand people, the same is probably true of Leiden, Utrecht and Amsterdam. But also at technical universities such as the University of Twente, we managed to mobilise many people through WOinAction. All in all, it could yield about five to six thousand people in Utrecht.”
“A lot of parties have joined the demonstration. The unions, advocates such as the national network for PhD students (PNN) and PostdocNL and the LSVb. In addition, university boards are also joining in, the Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), and even the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), which normally does not speak out because of their advisory role. The Dutch Association for Legal Justice has also expressed its support for the demonstration.”
What do you want to achieve with the demonstration?
“Put pressure on the Ministry of OCW and parliament, the House of Representatives, but especially the Senate. They can still stop the budget with their vote, especially since the government does not have a majority in the Senate.”
“But above all, we hope that universities will start to see that there are alternative scenarios. Some universities and deans are quite law-abiding and have already started implementing austerity policies, which we as a joint coalition find very unwise. For instance, the humanities faculties of Leiden and Utrecht have already announced that they are going to cut courses. The story is that this should have happened anyway, but a meeting at the UU showed that if it weren’t for the draconian cuts by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), those faculties austerity plans would never have become so heavy.”
“Moreover, there are alternatives. As a university, you can also dip into your reserves and make your voice heard more clearly. Universities are actually too big to fail: they cannot go bankrupt at all, so a little academic disobedience is in order.”
Should the demonstration fail to gain a hearing, what can we expect?
“If the budget does indeed pass through parliament then we will consider a strike. Even this Thursday is already a form of work strike, which universities are facilitating by giving students and staff time off. Of course, a longer strike is only going to succeed if enough people join in. So that will have to be seen on Thursday. A high turnout is very important for us.”
The demonstration will take place on Thursday 14 November in Utrecht from 1pm to 3pm. A march will start from Moreelsepark to Domplein, where a programme will follow with speakers and music. Sign up here. A train ticket to Utrecht is free, provided you are a member or become a member of the AOb in time.
