EUR will not be signing the #WOinactie petition, according to an Executive Board spokesperson.
The petition, set up by four Amsterdam-based academics, appeals for more money for university education. The main aim is not a salary rise for teaching staff, but to attract another 4,000 staff in order to reduce the workload and the size of the working groups and improve the quality of the education.
EUR is thus following the line of the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) which, although calling the coalition agreement ‘disappointing’ and the workload among academic staff ‘a big problem’, does not support strike action. “Universities are already working to enforce the collective employment (cao) agreements made in March, and that offers good hope of improvement,” says VSNU spokesperson Bart Pierik.
Some Rotterdam signatures
The petition now has over 4,000 signatures, also from academics in Rotterdam. These include Dick Douwes (dean) and Jeroen Jansz (programme director) from the ESHCC faculty and professors Bram Steijn, Wiep van Bunge, Willem Schinkel and Willem Frijhoff. The University of Amsterdam, VU Amsterdam, the University of Groningen and Maastricht University are also supporting the petition.
