Director Sandra Meeuwsen says the bad news from the faculty greatly surprised her team. “It happened in conjunction with ESPRIT being selected as one of Erasmus University’s most impactful initiatives.” She is here referring to a report on the university’s ambitions to generate more impact, released in September. The report devotes two full pages to the research centre as one of the EUR’s most ‘impactful’ projects.
Harsh government policy
Given Meeuwsen’s prolonged absence due to the situation, Dean Liesbeth Noordegraaf-Eelens feels it is ‘not appropriate’ to explain the decision now. Meeuwsen herself suspects that the decision was partly prompted by announced government cuts to education and science.
“The message came just before the summer holidays, when all the cuts were gradually being disclosed”, says Meeuwsen. “The cabinet’s policy is quite harsh towards science and especially towards the humanities. So yes, the philosophy faculty is on the chopping block.”
Impact policy does not align well
In addition, she thinks that the university’s impact policy is not always well aligned with academic practice. At the philosophy faculty, this caused problems. “The vast majority of people there are engaged in research, teaching and grant acquisition. I was told: you do things so differently, much more ad hoc and focused on current problems in society. That’s something we can’t handle; we do not have the apparatus to provide financial and legal support. And I can understand that somewhat.”
According to the sports philosopher, the university needs to learn to work much more flexibly and decisively than many faculties are currently used to. “If we are asked to do research on gender inclusion in high-level sports, it should not take two months to submit a bid. That makes a very bad impression, but is currently the reality.”
Setback
ESPRIT cooperates with all kinds of sports-related organisations and government bodies, such as FIFA, the Netherlands Olympic Committee and the KNVB. André de Jeu, director of the Association of Sport and Municipalities, called the news ‘a setback’. “The themes of ESPRIT are visible everywhere. Without ESPRIT, you’re lacking scientific evidence and the discussion gets stuck on gut feelings and incidents. On the contrary, a centre with a set-up and approach like this should deserve to be involved longer and not scrapped at the first disappointing financial result.”
A round of calls to other Dutch universities to see if the centre could be relaunched elsewhere has yielded nothing as of yet, according to Meeuwsen. “Everyone is waiting for the axe to fall. On the other hand, all sorts of things are coming my way now, so if I can create an opening somewhere in some other form, I will continue with the same questions from a different context. It’s just incredibly unfortunate for Erasmus University.”
