The Frisian language gets its own bachelor’s degree again
Frisian will get its own professor and bachelor’s degree again. The House of Representatives is allocating €340,000 a year for this. Frisian will also get a practical department in the MBO vocational college, it emerged Thursday during the budget debate.
In his first major debate, with the camera of Omroep Friesland trailing him, the new Frisian MP Aant Jelle Soepboer (NSC) secured an important prize. A broad majority in the House of Representatives supports his amendment that allocates money for a practical department for “Frisian language and literacy in the multilingual context.”
A practical department is the counterpart of a lectureship at a university of applied sciences or a department of a professor at the university. It consists of a specialist surrounded by researchers who form a “knowledge circle.”
New bachelors’ degree
Enough parties have co-signed Soepboer's amendment that it already has a broad majority. The same goes for the proposal by Habtamu de Hoop (GroenLinks-Pvda), who would like to reserve €340,000 for a new bachelor's program in Frisian.
Just over a week ago, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences noted that Frisian is “under threat.” This official national language should be studied and taught at the university, the KNAW argued. It recommended establishing a new bachelor's degree with a chair of Frisian with its own budget.
On Thursday, the Minister of Education backed both amendments. Robbert Dijkgraaf wants to discuss a new bachelor's degree with the University of Groningen and thinks the plan will be “positively received” there. He is also “very sympathetic to the plan for a practical department of Frisian at the MBO.”
