In the Randstad, all psychology programmes will once again be in Dutch, the universities promise. This applies to the programme in Rotterdam as well. Additionally, Erasmus University is offering a reduction in the intake restriction for the English-taught tracks in Economics and Business Administration.
Econometrics in Tilburg will switch to Dutch. Also, universities across the country want to admit fewer students to English-taught bachelor’s programmes.
All in all, there will soon be 2,000 fewer international university bachelor’s students compared to the peak year of 2022/2023, universities state, leaving approximately 16,766 international first-year students. (The decrease has already begun: there are expected to be about 700 fewer than in the current academic year.)
The presence of foreign students does cause problems in some areas, universities acknowledge. Some programmes became too large, and in certain cities, there is too little student housing.
Condition
However, they do have one condition for this ‘self-management’ offer. The government must abolish the ‘test for non-Dutch language education’ for existing bachelor’s programmes.
With this test, the government wants to scrutinise all English-taught bachelor education: is it effective or would it be better in Dutch? Each programme would need to justify its existence. This is part of the legislative proposal for balancing internationalisation.
By reducing the number of English-taught programmes (and thus the number of international students), PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB initially aimed to save 293 million euros per year. After a compromise with the Christian opposition parties and JA21, this figure was reduced to 168 million euros per year, with more than 60 per cent allocated to the universities and the rest to higher professional education.
'Amputation'
For new programmes, universities acknowledge that the language test can be introduced, but for the current offerings, it would be pointless. It would only create bureaucracy and plunge higher education into uncertainty: it takes a few years to find out which programmes will remain, they reason.
And as long as the threat of a language test looms, universities will not proceed with self-management. Otherwise, they risk experiencing ‘a second stage of amputation’ after their self-management, said chairman Caspar van den Berg of university association UNL in an online press conference on Tuesday. It would all work out faster and better if politics would leave the universities alone.
'Proportionate'
How much does each individual university have to give up? It will be ‘proportionate’, says Anton Pijpers, chairman of Utrecht University and leader of the self-management initiative. However, he does not wish to disclose precise figures and percentages per university. Some programmes will shrink, he explains, while others may grow.
The latter concerns bachelor’s programmes in sectors such as beta, technology, AI and education, where the Dutch labour market has a glaring shortage. For this, they want to recruit more internationals.
Some general universities may look jealously at the technical universities, that are granted more space for internationals. Delft, Eindhoven and Wageningen promise to convert a small English-taught programme to Dutch or discontinue it ‘ out of solidarity with the other universities’. Twente is not part of this.
Politics
The education committee of the House of Representatives will debate this topic next week; hence the timing of this proposal. The minister must still consider how, as demanded by the opposition, to soften the blow for programmes in border and shrinking regions.
Moreover, the universities do not plan to formalise these intentions in a list of agreements with the government. The previous administrative agreement (in which additional funding was promised) has been set aside; the universities are pursuing legal action regarding this. They plan to establish this new self-management through mutually binding agreements.
