{"id":130109,"date":"2021-09-08T11:07:56","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T09:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=130109"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:50","slug":"where-is-that-1-1-billion-protest-opens-the-academic-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/09\/08\/where-is-that-1-1-billion-protest-opens-the-academic-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Where is that 1.1 billion? Protest opens the academic year"},"content":{"rendered":"

In her address at the opening of the academic year, outgoing minister Ingrid van Engelshoven took extra time to reflect on the coronavirus crisis. But she couldn\u2019t please the protesters: for the time being there won\u2019t be any extra money.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Rens Bod (woinactie) presents his 'alternative budget plan' to minister Ingrid van Engelshoven<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHoger Onderwijs Persbureau<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

In many universities in the Netherlands, Monday\u2019s speeches marking the opening of the academic year focused on the impact of the coronavirus crisis; according to administrators, it\u2019s a good thing that students will be allowed to return to campus again.<\/p>\n

This sentiment was echoed<\/a> by outgoing minister Ingrid van Engelshoven in the Pieterskerk in Utrecht at the opening of the academic year of the University for Humanistic Studies. \u201cOf the hundreds of students I have spoken to, a large number told me how they lost their sense of rhythm and motivation\u201d, she said. And therefore lecture halls and campus caf\u00e9s \u201chave to again become places for meeting people and getting inspired\u201d.<\/p>\n

Unlike her host, Rector Magnificus Joke van Saane of the University of Humanistic Studies, Van Engelshoven did not address the structural lack of funding in higher education, even though it is something that she has acknowledged<\/a>. She only said: \u201cSometimes I think that we have to re-learn how to share resources.\u201d But this was in reference to society as a whole, and not about something as specific as the basic student grant or university funding.<\/p>\n

No extra money<\/h2>

After her speech, Van Engelshoven walked to the square behind the Pieterskerk where the General Union of Education (AOb) and FNV trade unions, the protest group WOinActie and the Dutch Student Union were holding the \u201creal opening\u201d of the academic year for the third year in a row. About a hundred students and faculty were in attendance.<\/p>\n

On the podium, professor Rens Bod of the University of Amsterdam presented an \u2018alternative budget\u2019 on behalf of WOinActie. This turned out to be nothing more than one long scroll of taped-together sheets of paper that said \u201c\u20ac1.100.000.000\u201d \u2013 the amount that higher education should be getting as its annual funding increase. Recent research<\/a>carried out at the direction of the House of Representatives has reconfirmed this amount.<\/p>\n\n\t

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