Education minister Eppo Bruins says that higher education should focus on filling the gaps in the labour market. Columnist Dirk-Jan Scheffers thinks this is nonsense. Proper remuneration and favourable labour conditions will get rid of these shortages on their own.
It’s all too easy to get upset at the shitty people in the government, but it’s the smiling, smooth-talking ones you really have to look out for. They come across as perfectly reasonable, claim to be passionate about the cause, all while destroying civil society.
Last week, education minister Eppo Bruins announced extensive reforms to the broadcasting system. According to him, it’s no longer fulfilling its purpose, in part because ‘people keep changing their loyalty’. Bruins, who’s already on his third political party, is trying to make himself the measure of all things.
Whether that’s sufficient reason to merge the various networks, each with their own identity, into one giant faculty – apologies, one giant network, remains to be seen. Scrapping the NTR, a neutral network that airs quite a few educational programmes, once again shows that ministers don’t prioritise the edification of their people.
Bruins, already on his third political party, is making himself the measure of all things
This week, Bruins, with the assistance of the Christian Union and the Christian Democratic Appeal, the parties of which he was once a member, will likely succeed in getting his educational budget approved by the Upper House. He also has follow-up plans for higher education at the ready. Bruins wants a tighter grip on what kind of education is provided, with higher education focusing on filling the gaps in the labour market.
Research universities and universities of applied sciences will have to come up with ‘self-directional plans’. The institutes are being asked to find out which programmes can be taught where and in which language – without waiting for the Balanced Internationalisation Act to do it for them.
This feels a lot like they’re trying to get the institutes themselves to do away with English as a teaching language – one of the minister’s main goals. It’s probably because the Balanced Internationalisation Act keeps running afoul of both the law and practice.
Physicists with a PhD should never want to become ministers of anything
But let’s talk about the labour market. Our graduates have no problem finding jobs. That probably means they picked the right programme. I therefore strongly doubt whether steering upcoming students en masse to ‘desired’ programmes, simply by cutting those programmes’ budgets little less than their ‘less useful’ counterparts.
When I started my university career, the friends who went into business administration asked me: ‘Why study to be an engineer, if you can study to be their boss?’ Many of my fellow science students went to work at banks and consultancy agencies after they graduated. They’d make better money, and the university had taught them skills that were useful in these environments.
In fact, many people end up in positions they weren’t specifically trained for – and that’s fine. However, I’d make an exception for physicists with a PhD; they should never want to become ministers of anything.
If you want more people to pick a programme that trains them for a field suffering from shortages, you have to take a hard look at the remuneration and working conditions of that field. Not only will you get more enrolments, but you’ll also limit the number of people leaving the sector after a few years.
DIRK-JAN SCHEFFERS