Bachelor’s degrees now only in Dutch? “My Dutch is non-existent”
Possible coalition partners PVV, NSC, and BBB want to counteract anglicization at Dutch universities. How does this strike international UvA students and staff? Are they worried?
Dutch only. If it were up to PVV leader Geert Wilders, that is how all undergraduate programs at Dutch universities would be structured from now on. Now that he overwhelmingly won the parliamentary elections last week, the PVV’s chances of implementing this plan have become a lot more real.
In this vein, a cabinet with New Social Contract (NSC) and BBB is being formed, parties that are also very critical of the increasing internationalization at Dutch universities.
Whether it will come to that remains to be seen. But legally, language policy at least seems possible, observes Nik de Boer, associate professor of constitutional law at the University of Amsterdam. “In many other European countries, English is not the language of instruction at universities, either,” he explains. “While direct discrimination based on nationality is not possible within the European Union, indirect discrimination is. It could be done through language policy, for example, so it could be mandated that all courses be taught in Dutch.”
For a wholly English-language UvA program like Politics, Psychology, Law, and Economics (PPLE), with some 65 to 70 percent of foreign students in its ranks, such a measure could have enormous consequences. The idea of that study program is to make a constructive contribution to the major societal challenges of our time, such as climate change, says PPLE Dean Radboud Winkels. “And those problems do not respect national borders.”
Thus PPLE requires its students to read, write, and speak fluent English. Switching to Dutch would fundamentally alter the (international) character of the study program, Winkels believes. There are also practical objections. “It would take some time before our international lecturers could teach properly in Dutch.”
Exception
Winkels therefore hopes that the exemption for studies with a small-scale and intensive character will be maintained. This is included in the pending draft bill, Internationalization in Balance, from outgoing Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf (OCW). According to the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organization (NVAO), PPLE meets these requirements.
“So if that bill is passed in its current form, it is not expected to have any consequences for our program, nor for the Amsterdam University College (AUC), for example,” Winkels said. Whether the new parliament will make any significant changes to that, “remains a matter of conjecture, but for the time being, I assume it won’t.
FPÖ
The same goes for second-year PPLE student Luca Gerhardus. He is not afraid of being required to continue his studies exclusively in Dutch, anyway. “My Dutch is non-existent,” admits the native Austrian, “but I don’t see this happening so soon.” Not at PPLE, or at other degree programs either, he adds.
Gerhardus points to the internationally oriented universities in Maastricht and Utrecht. This measure would “ruin them,” he thinks. Besides, he didn’t notice anything when the right-wing FPÖ party, back home in Austria, came to power, either. “I don’t notice much of a shift between different governments, but maybe that will now change.”
Polish undergraduates Julia Kierszka and Basia Brulinska don’t expect such a storm with Wilders’ anti-internationalization plans either, according to the Roeter Island campus. Kierszka studies psychology at the UvA, and Brulinska studies business administration. “The Netherlands is such an international country,” they both say. “I don’t think it’s possible for an incoming government to suddenly scrap all these English-language studies,” Brulinska said.
A bubble
But for a moment, it was a shock for these students when they saw the election results. Take Gerhardus. Among his fellow students at the PPLE, he doesn’t know anyone who voted for the right. The PPLE is a bit of a bubble, he laughs. “All PPLE students were extremely angry, including me.”
There is also concern. Chinese psychology student Jiyao Dai is “just leaving again for the UK or Canada,” but “other international students will soon be unable to find study or jobs here,” he fears, “and may not even be able to stay.”
Finding a job is also expected to become increasingly difficult for international staff at Dutch universities, especially for those with small scholarships, and certainly in Amsterdam. The parliament recently passed an amendment by Pieter Omtzigt (NSC), among others, which makes the so-called 30-percent rule for expats stricter. Until recently, this tax benefit made it easier for international employees to obtain housing in the Netherlands.
A poll by six university journals among 1,330 international students and staff in other university cities earlier showed that some 25 percent feel (very) unwelcome in the Netherlands, while 55 percent feel welcome or very welcome.
This poll was conducted before the election results were announced.
No big winners
Within PPLE, Winkels has not yet heard employees voice any significant worries about this. “But it seems logical to me that some will experience it as a problem.” Especially the junior lecturers, he emphasizes, who usually teach working groups. They are young, often new holders of doctorates, and not big earners at the university. “The expat arrangement makes a considerable difference to them. So presumably some of our lecturers will still be bumping up against that.”
The downside of the 30 percent rule is that it puts extra pressure on the overstrained housing market, Omtzigt argues. Besides, that tax revenue could be better spent, he believes, on “lowering the interest rate on student loans,” for example. So a good thing for students from the unlucky generation, but a bummer for international employees—with the Wilders-led coalition still to come.
