This is stated in a plan by student organisations ISO and LSVb, the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences and university association VSNU that was presented to minister of education Jet Bussemaker on Monday.
In order to do so, the institutions want to use funding that will become available in 2018 due to the termination of the basic student financing system, the so-called study advance facilities. These measures are intended to combat inequality in education.
The research universities and universities of applied sciences also want to invest more in modernisation of educational facilities and increased professionalisation of instructors.
More study spaces
The RUG, due to the promised millions of euros, has already made additional investments in education and research. The money was used to pay for additional study spaces in the University Library and for investments in profiling the master’s programmes.
As a result, the university now has a negative operating result of 7.5 million euro, which needs to be covered by the study advance resources.
Necessity
At the RUG, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FWN) and the Faculty of Law indicated that they will use the funds from the student loan system to attract more instructors, which is necessary to combat the high work load.
According to FWN, the number of students has increased so significantly due to the success of the English-language programmes that ‘urgent measures’ are required, because the shortage of instructors is a threat to the quality and accreditation of the programmes. As a result, the faculty is already using its share of the study advance facilities to invest in additional personnel.
The ministry of education is estimating 76 million euro in study advance facilities from 2018 onwards increasing to 152 million by 2020. However, these have not been distributed among the universities. How they will ultimately be distributed is not yet clear.