At the initiative of the University of Groningen’s council, the participatory councils of all universities are appealing to the minister of education, Eppo Bruins, in light of the severe budget cuts planned by the cabinet. ‘We are backed into a corner.’
Tomorrow, universities across the Netherlands will be empty! Students and staff will leave to protest the unprecedented harsh budget cuts announced by this cabinet for higher education: one billion euros. A figure so large it almost becomes abstract.
To put it in concrete terms: this is equivalent to shutting down Wageningen University, Eindhoven University of Technology, and the University of Twente. If these cuts go through, it won’t just mean one day of empty lecture halls, but silence for a long time to come in our classrooms.
Tomorrow’s exodus will be in service to the large, widely supported protest set to take place in Utrecht. University councils, staff councils, and student councils from universities across the Netherlands will all be travelling together to make their voices heard.
Every year, staff and students are elected to participate in university governance, to engage in discussions with university leaders and, if necessary, to hold them accountable. It is a unique right on a global scale, a right that gives democracy a tangible presence within universities.
The participation councils will merely be consulted on where the cuts will fall
These budgets cuts, however, will leave us powerless. The coming years will be marked by the deep wound inflicted by this cabinet without vision, without purpose, based on nothing more than resentment toward the so-called ivory tower. The universities will bleed! And the participation councils will merely be consulted on where the cuts will fall. We refuse to accept that, and this is why we are protesting loudly tomorrow!
Are we supposed to approve cuts to research? No other country appears as often on the lists of the world’s best universities as the Netherlands. That’s not just nice or a point of pride; it’s the engine driving our country forward. Research conducted in partnership with government and industry addresses urgent issues: social inequality, polarisation, the climate crisis.
At the same time, fundamental research at universities lays the foundation for tomorrow’s innovations and society. Without today’s endless surveys, there will be no new treatments for depression in ten years! Without that scientist in a lab today, there will be no new ASML in twenty years!
Are we expected to endorse cuts to our staff, then? The Labour Inspectorate sounded the alarm earlier this year: the workload at universities is already alarmingly high, and these cuts will further exhaust our staff. Universities have already implemented hiring freezes. People with no permanent contract are unceremoniously let go and there’s no one to fill the vacant positions.
Fundamental research lays the foundation for tomorrow’s innovations and society
Or should we finally give up and give our approval to cuts to our education, and thereby our students? Not even a little bit. The students are only slowly beginning to climb out of the pit the Covid-19 pandemic forced them into. In-person education, together in the classroom, proved not only to be the best possible form of education but also essential for their development and mental health.
This cabinet is pushing students back into that pit: less funding for education inevitably means fewer contact hours. That is, if they can even afford to study. The slow study penalty makes a university education unaffordable for those who wish to contribute to the university community, such as in the participatory councils, and to society, for example by providing care to family members.
These cuts are backing university participatory councils into a corner. We refuse to accept that. This is why we are heading to Utrecht on Thursday, and we urge everyone who owes something to Dutch universities to do the same: our students, our staff, our alumni, even the former students who are now ministers or secretaries of state.
On behalf of the central participatory councils of Erasmus University Rotterdam, Maastricht University, Open University, Protestant Theological University, Radboud University, University of Groningen, Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, Theological University Apeldoorn, Theological University Utrecht, Tilburg University, Leiden University, University of Twente, University of Amsterdam, University of Humanistic Studies, Utrecht University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Wageningen University & Research.