{"id":180189,"date":"2025-06-24T17:07:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T15:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=180189"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:52","slug":"minister-bruins-fears-american-style-politics-give-the-education-minister-less-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2025\/06\/24\/minister-bruins-fears-american-style-politics-give-the-education-minister-less-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister Bruins fears American-style politics: \u2018Give the education minister less power\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minister of Education should have less power, says Education Minister Bruins. He fears that populists will want to interfere in higher education after the elections. \u201cWhole faculties could have been cut.\u201d<\/p>

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Minister Eppo Bruins at the Opening Academic Year 2024.<\/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\tArie Kers<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Minister Bruins often referred to his own multi-billion cuts to education, culture and science as \u201cpainful\u201d and \u201cugly\u201d. Now he thanks his \u201copponents\u201d: \u201cThanks to the opposition and other friends of education, the sector is in a better place than it was eleven months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

After lengthy coalition talks, Bruins was asked to become Minister of Education. This came with deep budget cuts, such as the controversial slow-progress penalty for students taking too long to graduate. But he does not regret that \u201chis\u201d measures were softened or scrapped under pressure from mass protests and fierce political opposition.<\/p>\n

\u2018Useless science\u2019<\/h2>

Geert Wilders\u2019 PVV has left the coalition, new elections have been called, and Minister Bruins now feels free to speak his mind about the populist trends in The Hague. \u201cIn this political climate, entire faculties or departments could easily have been axed. Because that\u2019s then labelled as useless science.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is plenty to discuss since he took office, but Eppo Bruins rarely gives interviews. Last Wednesday, he made some time for HOP. He wants to warn against politicians who undermine the rule of law, he says, following a meeting about autonomy in higher education.<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Within this cabinet, reasonable forces have ensured that our rule of law still functions properly\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

How much power should a minister have in populist times?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bruins: \u201cBe careful not to exert too much control over higher education. Before you know it, politics starts to interfere. We watch America with concern, but I don\u2019t think the Netherlands was all that far off. We also have people here who say the public broadcaster is biased and should be cut. And people who say science is just another opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

You suggest that under your cabinet we came close to American-style politics.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying anything specific happened. But we now have political parties and a political climate in the Netherlands in which the value of serious science and the existence of a public broadcaster are no longer a given. Within this cabinet, reasonable forces have ensured that our rule of law still functions properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the public broadcaster was nearly axed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that only one hundred million is being cut from the NPO brought a sigh of relief in Hilversum. Everyone knows that very different scenarios were also on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t hear any sighs of relief from the universities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBut the nearly one billion euros in cuts to higher education were no stroke of luck. Those were very ugly cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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Read more<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t