Universities receive €200 million annually for collaboration and permanent jobs

Last fall, Minister Dijkgraaf (OCW) already distributed €60 million and now another €140 million is being added. The money goes to the so-called “sector plans” in which universities collectively agree on what they are going to do. This sum of €200 million is not a one-time sum but is instead intended to be structural.

The money should contribute to “rest and spaciousness,” as Dijkgraaf calls it. The universities promise to hire more permanent staff, which would involve about 1,200 permanent jobs. They will also make choices on the direction of their research.

“This is a unique operation in the history of Dutch science policy,” writes the committee charged with assessing Dijkgraaf’s plans. There have been sector plans before, but not for all fields.

Minor languages

The choices concern, for example, the subject of “sustainable energy” in the STEM-sector plan, or “medical robotics” within the sector plan for Technology. But most striking is the plan for minor languages.

In particular German and French courses are not doing well. “Despite several initiatives to turn the tide, language education has entered a vicious cycle,” the committee states. Too few students are choosing to study languages, resulting in a growing shortage of German and French teachers. This in turn leads to a decline in the quality of language education, reducing the number of students entering the programs.

Until now, the universities have mainly tried to keep individual courses at the universities afloat. This is not particularly effective and unsustainable in the long run.

National programs

So the committee is enthusiastic about the plans submitted for national undergraduate programs, which will be worked on in the coming years. It expects “these joint programs to be launched no later than the year 2025-2026.”

Advice is also given to the universities. They should arrive at a joint degree, or one degree from different universities, for these “modern school languages.” They should also explore that option for other school languages with teacher shortages, such as Greek and Latin.

And why should you have to offer those degrees in different cities? That might not be as effective. Or as it is worded in the advice, “the committee also recommends exploring whether a single location for some of these programs would not be the preferable option viewed through the lens of efficiency.”

Another way to pull the programs out of the doldrums, according to the planners, is better cooperation with interdisciplinary programs. The committee likes that idea, too. These include newer programs such as intercultural communication, artificial intelligence, and minorities and multilingualism, as well as programs such as history, communication studies, and journalism.

Milestone

In a letter to the House of Representatives, Dijkgraaf praises the sector plans, in part because they lead to “clear choices.” He calls the allocation of funds a “very important milestone and a beautiful result.” So as of this allocation, the implementation of the “full sector plans can be started,” says Dijkgraaf. That includes the introduction of national bachelor programs in minor languages.

Sector plans won’t magically solve the problems in higher education and research. Among other things, the committee cites the arrival of foreign students. “In every domain, there are different bottlenecks in the field of internationalization and therefore different ideas on how to handle them,” the advice states. The sector plans do not yet effectively address these problems.

The ministry is also working on the advent of “start-up and incentive grants” for researchers. These play right across national agreements and it is not yet known exactly how this will work out.

Permanent jobs

And those permanent jobs that were announced? The committee cautions against moving too fast. When recruiting large numbers of university teachers, “especially in the current tight labor market,” universities must always keep an eye on the quality of research and teaching. That means that the pace “can be adjusted to ensure the quality of recruitment. There will be another opinion before the summer, in which the committee will address such issues.”