On Good Friday, the government published the Spring memorandum after the four governing parties negotiated for over 24 hours. The result for education and research: new cuts.
Institutions will receive less money to accommodate inflation. This reduction in ‘wage and price adjustment’ applies to all ministries. However, targeted cuts have also been announced.
25 million for science
Last December, the PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB reached an agreement with four opposition parties to soften the cuts. One of the agreements was that science would receive 25 million euros four times a year.
This funding for science is partly sourced from basic education: an improvement of the curriculum will be postponed. The rest of the money was already meant for higher education. It comes from a fund (student loan resources) that had already been reserved for higher education but had no specific destination set.
Public transport reimbursement abroad
Furthermore, the Spring memorandum contains a clear cut of 59 million euros in funding for higher education starting from 2030. This year, the cut amounts to two million, and next year it will be 24 million, increasing thereafter.
This cut replaces another cut. The government initially intended to scrap the reimbursement for the public transport card for Dutch students studying abroad. (Those studying across the border have no use for a Dutch public transport card and can instead receive a monthly amount in their bank account.)
That cut will not proceed, as it has been found to be legally untenable. In other words, someone can initiate a lawsuit, and it is likely that the government will have to uphold that reimbursement. This is a financial setback – and the education sector will have to take the hit.
Improvements to cybersecurity (technically the implementation of the NIS2 directive) will also be partially passed on to education. For other ministries, these costs were already known, but not for the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.
Student numbers
Setbacks are not uncommon in the Spring memorandum, but sometimes there is good news. Higher education students are achieving their diplomas faster than expected, according to this memorandum. This is positive for everyone, although their basic grant, supplementary grant, and public transport student card will change to a gift sooner than anticipated. Consequently, the government will have to pay for them more quickly.
Another ‘setback’ for the treasury is the number of students in higher professional education: the decline appears to be less severe than expected, as the projected student numbers have been revised upwards. This will ultimately cost an additional 96.8 million euros.
Universities, meanwhile, can expect less money as the number of Dutch students in scientific education turns out to be smaller than thought: this results in a long-term decrease of 40 million euros per year.
In student financing, the ministry is facing a setback of 94 million euros this year for various reasons. However, in the long term, there is an unexpected gain of 36 million euros as fewer students apply for student financing, and the supplementary grant often turns out to be lower than estimated. Additionally, students are travelling less by public transport, resulting in a cheaper public transport student card.
Other sectors
Cuts are also occurring in the rest of education. For example, the ‘education opportunity scheme,’ which provides extra funding for schools in certain disadvantaged areas, will be abolished. This will lead to a structural saving of 177 million euros. Furthermore, funding for vocational education will decrease by 21 million euros per year.
Reactions
Chairman Caspar van den Berg of the university association UNL describes the new cuts as ‘damaging to education and therefore damaging to the future of the Netherlands.’
The General Education Union is outright furious. Chairman Thijs Roovers compares the cuts to ‘stealing sweets from a child,’ as the government takes away opportunities from vulnerable students in secondary education.
The MBO Council also expresses surprise. “It is a disjointed set of measures”, says chairman Adnan Tekin. “Harm to education and thereby harm to the future of the Netherlands is an inevitable consequence of this.”
The Association of Universities of Applied Sciences has not yet responded to the Spring memorandum.
