{"id":183535,"date":"2025-11-17T14:52:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T13:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=183535"},"modified":"2026-04-14T12:30:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:30:39","slug":"international-criminal-court-dumps-microsoft-can-a-university-of-applied-sciences-or-university-do-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2025\/11\/17\/international-criminal-court-dumps-microsoft-can-a-university-of-applied-sciences-or-university-do-the-same\/","title":{"rendered":"International Criminal Court dumps Microsoft. Can a university of applied sciences or university do the same?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Higher education without Microsoft? In some places, serious alternatives are being explored. Yet it’s far from a done deal. While education is trying to wriggle free, Microsoft is pulling more and more tasks towards itself.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFemke Legu\u00e9<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

At the International Criminal Court, the chief prosecutor suddenly found he could no longer access his email. According to<\/a> software supplier Microsoft, this was due to US sanctions against staff of the Court. The Trump administration was far from pleased with the Court\u2019s arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu and the Court was hit with sanctions as a result.<\/p>\n

The lesson? Anyone wanting to protect themselves from Trump\u2019s wrath had better not depend on companies from his country. The Court officially says nothing about the reason for the switch, but according to NRC<\/em><\/a> it now prefers a German alternative over Microsoft.<\/p>\n

With that alternative, OpenDesk, you can also send emails, do word processing, produce reports, give presentations, share files and make video calls. It is open source, which means that anyone can inspect and improve its code.<\/p>\n

The same goes for another alternative, also from Germany: Nextcloud. This office software has been tested since the start of this year by some 75 researchers at five Dutch universities. Can other institutions switch to it as well?<\/p>\n

Dependence<\/h2>

In Dutch higher education, dependence on American tech companies is high. Microsoft in particular is a major player. Not only do students and staff use its software extensively; IT staff at educational institutions are also tied to the American company with all kinds of specialist software. Moreover, a lot of data are stored in Microsoft\u2019s cloud.<\/p>\n

That is why lecturers are sounding the alarm. Last Wednesday, the knowledge centre for practice-based research, DCC-PO, argued<\/a> that the dominance of companies such as Google and Microsoft threatens researchers\u2019 autonomy. Universities of applied sciences should work more with open source and open standards.<\/p>\n

In July, De Jonge Akademie<\/em> also warned<\/a> that students and staff have no idea what tech companies do with their data. By handing over the management of IT systems, educational institutions lose technical knowledge and control. This draws them ever further into the spell of big tech and puts academic freedom and independence at risk, De Jonge Akademie<\/em> argues.<\/p>\n

Fickle<\/h2>

Already, seven Dutch universities and one university of applied sciences are on the sanctions list<\/a> of the state of Florida because they severed or froze ties with Israeli institutions. With a fickle president like Donald Trump, educational institutions could just as easily face their own \u2018Strafhof moment\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\t

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