Eppo Bruins almost became a professor by special appointment, but instead became a minister so he could bulldoze higher education. Is he an opportunistic job hunter? wonders columnist Dirk-Jan Scheffers.
The coalition agreement drawn up by government parties PVV, BBB, VVD, and NSC has made something very clear: they want to cut one billion euros in funding for academic education and research. A chorus of voices went up in protest, including employers organisations, planning offices, banks, advisory bodies, and Arjen Lubach. Never before had so many different Dutch organisations been in agreement.
Even Eppo Bruins, chair of the Advisory Council on Science, Technology, and Innovation (AWTI), said that ‘a country that doesn’t systematically invest in research and development doesn’t have a future’. Bruins’ own future lay in a professorship by special appointment in Leiden, a secondary job he had just been offered.
That’s why it’s so surprising to me when Bruins decided to change his tune. If a minister is asked to bulldoze a sector he cares so much about by a government that his own party, the Christian Union, is rabidly opposed to, surely he would pass up such an ‘honour’?
Bruins has called moving cutbacks as ‘saving 1,200 jobs’
Perhaps honour is more important than doubt. I guess excellence wins out over learnedness. Bruins passed on the beret and switched political parties; not for the first time. When he made his first switch, from the CDA to the CU, Bruins claimed it was because the CDA was working with the PVV. For his current switch to the NSC, its collaboration with the PVV must have been a deciding factor as well.
At least he’s consistent.
It’s remarkable how quickly Bruins mastered the doublespeak our current government uses to turn molehills into mountains, all while ignoring the actual problems facing our society. Bruins has called moving a 300-million cutback from one post to another as ‘saving 1,200 jobs’.
Universities should also really start working on reducing work stress. Otherwise, Bruins boasts, he’ll start ‘enforcing’ some things. Interestingly enough, those 300 million in cutbacks he moved actually negatively affect the measures the previous minister had taken to alleviate work stress.
And sure, cutbacks are ‘painful’ and we’re nowhere near the European 3 percent standard, but Bruins still wants to ‘recommend we and the governments that come after us stick to that 3 percent standard’.
No one quite knows what kind of cutbacks Bruins wants to make; even the VVD has asked for clarity
No one quite knows what kind of cutbacks Bruins wants to make – even coalition partner VVD has been asking for clarity for academics. According to Bruins, it’s ‘up to the sector’, but he’s already crunching the numbers, for instance by counting on a lower influx of students, without giving the universities the time or the tools to do anything about those student numbers. It’s a failure waiting to happen.
But perhaps Bruins isn’t quite the opportunistic job hunter I think he is. Perhaps, when he was asked to become minister, he saw it as a chance to save higher education from a coalition that considers universities to be hotbeds of woke leftist know-it-alls?
Maybe he’s sabotaging the government from within by taking so long to formulate his plans that the cabinet has fallen by the time he’s done?
While I truly hope so, I’m also realistic. Therefore, inspired by her excellency, minister Faber, I would suggest putting up a sign in front of the ministry of Education: ‘We’re working on bulldozing Higher Education’. Perhaps a good time to put them up would be on November 14, during the national protest against the cutbacks on education.
DIRK-JAN SCHEFFERS