‘Draconian’ measures needed at IBA and IBEB as too many international students arrive

The first meeting of the academic year between the University Council and the Executive Board opened with a bang: Erasmus University admitted too many international students last year. Draconian measures are needed, rector magnificus Jantine Schuit said.

The universities agreed to take measures themselves to reduce the number of international students, to prevent the government from cutting the numbers itself. This has worked at most universities, but not in Rotterdam, Schuit admitted. Around one hundred and fifty more students were admitted than allowed.

The ‘punishment’ for Erasmus University, the universities agreed, is that the International Business Administration and International Bachelor Economics and Business programmes will have a stricter intake restriction.

Too much support staff

The council also discussed the ratio between academics and support staff at length. The ratio in Rotterdam is almost 50:50, while in other cities support staff account for around 41 per cent.

“It is 48 per cent”, chair of the Executive Board Annelien Bredenoord corrected the councillors. “Thanks to our Future EUR plan, we are more aware of these figures. Reducing the proportion of support staff is part of that plan, partly by doing things in fewer different ways across different faculties. But those plans still have to be developed, so that will certainly take another year. Hopefully, this can happen through natural attrition.”

One councillor pointed out to Bredenoord that it is mainly young people on temporary contracts who experience a great deal of work-related stress and consequently leave. “And they cannot wait a year. Perhaps not the natural attrition you would want.”

Five new GPs

The council also discussed the availability of a doctor for international students. The GP the university works with, Jans, is no longer accepting new patients, so a new address is needed. The Executive Board had good news. “Five practices have been found where students can go.” Students can now find four addresses on the website.

Selling leave hours

The council also discussed a disagreement between the Executive Board and the Erasmus Labour Council (ELC, the trade union representation) about the number of leave hours employees may sell.

According to the Executive Board, the collective agreement states that employees may exchange a maximum of 32 unused hours for money. The ELC believes that universities may make their own arrangements and that 80 hours would be desirable.

Bredenoord said: “We don’t think that’s desirable, because workloads are already high and people also need to rest from time to time.” The remark prompted protests from the researchers on the council. They explained they are not always allowed to take enough leave. “And then you lose that money and those hours”, one councillor said. “If you do not take the hours, then you indeed do not get the money”, Bredenoord confirmed.

‘Defence is also about sustainability and mental health’

At the end of the meeting, Bredenoord discussed the declaration of intent signed by the chairs of the universities’ executive boards, in which they indicate that they want to work with the Ministry of Defence.

The council had all kinds of questions about this. First, a student councillor asked why the U-council had only been informed about it last week, while, according to him, Utrecht’s university council had already been informed ‘in or before the summer’ of the intention to sign a declaration. Another councillor wondered why dialogues about the ‘resilience of society’ were only scheduled for October, while the declaration has already been signed.

According to Bredenoord, who is leading this issue for the Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), it was very difficult to get all the universities on the same page, meaning it had not been possible to organise the discussion beforehand. She said she was willing to provide updates from UNL more often if there was a need for them, ‘although we always mention this during the announcements at the meeting’.

The Ministry of Defence has a budget of 1.16 billion euros to invest in innovation and knowledge. “This is really not only about weapons, but also about sustainability, mental health and democratic resilience”, Bredenoord explained. “With this letter, we also want to show that you cannot go only to TNO and the technical universities for innovation, but also to us.”