Thousands of students and lecturers take to the streets for higher education

More than seven thousand students, lecturers and researchers gathered in Amsterdam on Tuesday to protest against the cuts to higher education. There was great distrust of the direction taken by D66. “Stop the demolition!”

At around twelve o’clock, the Dam in Amsterdam begins to fill with demonstrators. They wear green caps or red hats handed out by the unions. They carry banners, flags and protest signs.

Wageningen, Groningen, Leiden, Utrecht… The demonstrators have come here from all over the country. A seven-piece student band welcomes the crowd with cheerful pop music.

‘I don’t like slogans’

“I don’t like demonstrating at all”, says Amsterdam professor of media studies Jeroen de Kloet. “I don’t like slogans and I get bored. But yes, sometimes you have to.” He wants to make his voice heard against the cuts to higher education and research.

Those cuts are still in the National Budget for now. The elections have not changed that. Education party D66 is negotiating the formation of a new cabinet, but the demonstrators remain cautious. If only because the VVD is also involved in the talks.

A Ukrainian chemistry student has travelled from Groningen to the Dam. He follows Dutch politics closely and does not dare trust that the cuts will be reversed. “Education is not a topic at all in the coalition talks”, he says.

‘Not everything is immigration’

On stage, representatives of education unions FNV and AOb, various activist groups and local student unions speak. “Don’t forget us”, says one of them to the parties forming the government. “Not everything is immigration, Defence or housing.”

Three politicians also take to the stage. They are from the Socialist Party, GroenLinks–PvdA and – yes indeed – from D66. Distrust is palpable when MP Ilana Rooderkerk (D66) is given the floor. There is even some booing. Only when she says that D66 wants to invest in education and research do those present seem to thaw a little. She poses next to a sign produced by the organisers: “We will reverse the cuts to higher education”, it says.

The distrust among the demonstrators is also linked to what the speakers call the ‘militarisation’ of higher education. So much money is going to the army – also in D66’s plans – that it will come at the expense of the public sector, several speakers fear. Education must show solidarity with, for example, healthcare and public broadcasting, they warn.

In one breath, some activists shout ‘Free Palestine’ and call for ties to be cut with Israeli institutions, the fossil fuel industry and American tech companies. Universities should also become more democratic. “We are going to choose your successors”, one of them shouts as a message to university administrators.

‘Super happy’

Among the demonstrators (but not on stage) is chair Maaike Krom of the National Student Union. She is ‘super happy’ with the turnout. There could have been even more, she thinks, if everyone had been given time off. “Some students simply weren’t allowed to miss their classes!”

After all the speeches, a long procession sets off. Somewhere a brass band is playing, further along you hear drums, and right at the front loud dance music is blasting from the speakers. The march also passes the Maagdenhuis of the University of Amsterdam, which has been occupied regularly since the 1960s but remains intact today. A small group of demonstrators climbs the steps to the front door and waves flags, but that is all. There are no disturbances.