The protest, organised by WOinActie, was held in response to the government’s budget cuts to higher education. Around midday, dozens of students and EUR staff blew their whistles enthusiastically to express their discontent with the cabinet’s austerity plans. Each whistle session was followed by slogans shouted through a megaphone. “Teachers and students united will never be defeated,” they chanted. The demonstrators called out in unison: “Don’t do it!”
Even louder
“If you don’t make noise, nothing will happen”, said Niels van Tol, staff member of the University Library. Van Tol believes it is crucial for students and staff to speak out. “It could have been even louder, as far as I’m concerned”, he remarked after the whistling.
Van Tol wants the protests to continue until concrete changes are made to the austerity plans. “Those who remain silent give their consent; it is up to citizens to respond to these bad ideas.” He described the cabinet’s postponement of the slow-progress penalty as an ‘empty promise’. “It’s very sad that the cabinet talks a lot but takes little action.” To Van Tol, the cabinet’s plans feel deeply contradictory. “The cabinet says it wants to invest in education, yet it is severely cutting funding for education and scientific research.”
A blow to higher education
Sjoerd van Vliet, board member of the General Education Union (AOb) and lecturer at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, believes the cuts will devastate higher education. “And that will, in turn, devastate the Dutch economy and our capacity for innovation.” According to him, innovation is essential for the Netherlands to continue growing and to remain strong in a time when war is drawing ever closer. He hopes the ‘catastrophe for higher education’ can still be averted.
“I want to be there for my students, to educate them and prepare them for the future, but soon we won’t have that opportunity anymore”, said Van Vliet. He described the whistle protest as a “last cry” for change. “If The Hague doesn’t make sensible decisions, there will undoubtedly be follow-up actions, and perhaps even strikes.” Jasper Schut, chair of the student union STUUR, confirmed this. “If nothing changes, strikes might indeed become necessary.”
