{"id":132003,"date":"2021-10-29T10:42:12","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T08:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=132003"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:57","slug":"participatory-bodies-are-bad-for-your-career-surely-that-cant-be-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/10\/29\/participatory-bodies-are-bad-for-your-career-surely-that-cant-be-right\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Participatory bodies are bad for your career, surely that can\u2019t be right?’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The employee participation bodies have to discuss virtually everything with university administrators, faculties and study programmes. In a letter<\/a> to the House of Representatives, outgoing minister Ingrid van Engelshoven wrote that \u201cby and large\u201d things are going well with employee participation. Her statement relies on research by the consulting firm Berenschot.<\/p>\n

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The Erasmus University Council in session (2021).<\/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\tMilena Chopova<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

But that\u2019s wrong, says Rien Wijnhoven, chair of LOVUM, the national association of university participation councils. He is also the independent chair of the university council in Tilburg.<\/p>\n

The turnout at elections has been declining for years and is sometimes dramatically low, and programme committees and faculty councils often have little choice: barely enough candidates can be found. And those in office generally have too little time.<\/p>\n

What do you think the problem is with employee participation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been worrying developments in recent years. The politicians are handing an increasing number of tasks to the participation bodies. We have to discuss enormous sums of money, we have to monitor quality agreements, we have to oversee staff welfare\u2026 The participation bodies are having an increasingly tough time meeting the high expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why is it getting harder?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe workload of researchers has increased enormously, as has the study load of students. They get insufficient remuneration for their time on the participation council and are sometimes discouraged from taking part altogether. Things sometimes go really badly, especially at the faculty and programme level, with councils that do not have the full number of members, lack of support and documents that arrive too late. The alarm needs to be sounded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Especially at the faculty and programme level, with councils that do not have the full number of members, lack of support and documents that arrive too late\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Why would you discourage someone from joining employee participation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOlder researchers sometimes say to ambitious young colleagues, \u2018don\u2019t do it, it\u2019s bad for your career\u2019. Those young researchers are on temporary contracts and grumbling is not appreciated, so why should they stick their neck out by joining the participation bodies? The workload among professors is high as well, so they very rarely take part. The result is an overrepresentation of support staff and employees who are nearing retirement. There is nothing wrong with those employees, but it makes the councils rather one-sided.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what needs to happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe work for participation bodies ought to be part of \u2018recognition and reward\u2019. That\u2019s the policy through which the Dutch universities aim to reward work activities other than scientific research, such as teaching and other forms of disseminating knowledge. Employee participation is included in that too. If all goes well, members of participation bodies will then get more support and facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The minister says that things are going well, by and large.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf things are going well at one university but badly at another, you cannot say that everything is okay on average. What does that actually tell us? It says in the Berenschot report that \u2018the majority\u2019 takes a certain view, and that majority is 58 percent. The variation says a lot more than \u2018the average\u2019 or \u2018the majority\u2019. Participation bodies must be properly facilitated everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

You might also reason that if the participation council cannot command its own facilities, what can we actually expect of it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot change this unwelcome trend on our own. That\u2019s why we are calling on politicians, the minister and our own administrators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why don\u2019t you say, \u2018we\u2019re not going to vote for anything until this is settled\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make much sense to put a spanner in the works. Ultimately, we all have the same interest at heart: a university that functions well, where people are happy with what they are doing. That is different from regular politics, where people are sometimes diametrically opposed.\u201d<\/p>\n

So how do we know if there\u2019s really a problem?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone can see that things are not heading in the right direction. The turnout at elections is often dramatically low. The councils have so much to do and they already have too little time to do it in, let alone putting effort into raising their profile on campus, keeping in contact with the people they represent and building a broader orientation, as Berenschot advises.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018We want to avoid having to say in five or ten years\u2019 time, \u2018let\u2019s just stop, it no longer means anything\u2019\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Does good employee participation really depend on a little more or less remuneration?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt probably doesn\u2019t matter a lot to the people who are doing the job right now; they knew what they were getting themselves into. But there are interesting groups of employees who are not currently standing for election. That\u2019s a sheer waste for the institution as a whole. We want to avoid having to say in five or ten years\u2019 time, \u2018let\u2019s just stop, it no longer means anything\u2019. Surely that can\u2019t be right? If you can\u2019t foster internal debate at a university, where can you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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Before<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t