Farewell message Moes: politics must interfere in range of courses

Education, healthcare, technology… Some courses are more important than others. The government must start interfering in the range of courses on offer, believes departing minister of Education Gouke Moes.

“My time as minister is almost over”, Gouke Moes (BBB) told the House of Representatives on Thursday. His successor Rianne Letschert will take office this month.

As a result, Moes could say little about his ministry’s budget. It will be overhauled once a new cabinet takes office. He described various plans and ideas from the House of Representatives as ‘premature’. Members of parliament would have to approach the next minister.

He did speak about social issues ‘that force us to make sharp choices’ in education: the decline in student numbers and the shortages of workers in healthcare, technology and education.

Stable

In future, funding for vocational education and higher education should become less dependent on student numbers. This requires a change in the law and, according to Moes, this will come soon: the new funding system should take effect in 2029. Until then, money has been set aside to keep small but important courses in declining regions afloat: 180 million euros.

Is that enough, the CDA wanted to know, and will the money end up in the right place? Moes could not say. His cabinet made cuts while at the same time providing extra funds to absorb the decline, but he wasn’t the one pulling levers. “We simply do not have those tools at our disposal”, he said. Institutions themselves decide which courses they keep running.

GroenLinks-PvdA also expressed concern. If courses disappear at Saxion University of Applied Sciences, for example, students in the Twente region effectively have no second or third choice available. Moes: “This is exactly the point.”

Interfere

According to Moes, the government shouldn’t only make funding more stable, but also exert more influence on the range of courses. “It is necessary to educate more students for the labour market of the future, for example in technology, security, housing construction and healthcare”, said Moes.

The interest of Dutch society outweighs ‘the individual interest of educational institutions’, he believes. The government, employers and educational institutions could make agreements on better information, good internships, salaries and ‘steering the number of places on courses’.

Not a luxury product

The latter means fewer students on one course and more on another. D66 responded immediately: “I just heard you say that the interest of shortage sectors outweighs the individual interest and freedom of choice of students”, said MP Anouschka Biekman. “I would like some clarification on that, because individual freedom of choice is of course not a luxury product.”

He was not referring to the individual freedom of choice of students, Moes replied, but to the freedom of institutions to determine their own range of courses. In his view, the government should provide somewhat more ‘steering’.

Cultural

But the labour market is not the only thing that matters. MP Diederik Boomsma (JA21) spoke up for ‘precisely the small courses at universities and universities of applied sciences’, which he said have ‘great cultural and social importance’. He tabled a motion.

“I consider that premature”, said Moes. “We are already working on that.” Boomsma decided to keep his motion in his inside pocket for now and wait for the plans of the new cabinet.