The internationalisation of higher education law should enable universities to offer academic programmes in their entirety abroad, which is crucial for the RUG’s plans to launch a campus in Yantai. The law was originally scheduled to be debated on Wednesday.
The VVD wanted the law to be handled quickly so as to ensure that the RUG’s plans would not be delayed by the Lower House elections in March. But according to the SP, the scheduled debate on Wednesday is just a bit too fast.
‘Haste is rarely good’, says SP MP Jasper van Dijk. ‘I want to deal with this thoughtfully. That is why I proposed a written procedure first.’ A majority in the Lower House (D66, CDA, PVV and PvdA) supported the measure.
Questions
The VVD is none too pleased. MP Pieter Duisenberg feels that the SP simply does not want to address the legal proposal before the elections, according to the HOP press agency. ‘It’s not that I want to postpone it until after the elections, but rather that the VVD wants to ensure that it goes through before the election’, says Van Dijk.
The parties will now have until 24 January to submit written questions to the minister. She will then answer those questions, after which a debate will be planned. The discussion in the Lower House could still happen prior to the elections. ‘We just have to wait and see when the debate will be held’, says RUG spokesperson Gernant Deekens.