{"id":6833,"date":"2015-09-14T15:54:16","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T13:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/?p=39421&lang=en"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:22","slug":"petitie-laat-vluchtelingen-studeren-en-onderzoek-doen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2015\/09\/14\/petitie-laat-vluchtelingen-studeren-en-onderzoek-doen\/","title":{"rendered":"Petition: have refugees study and do research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Universities and universities of applied sciences must do what they can to accept refugees as students or researchers. This is the upshot of a petition signed by more than six hundred people.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone sees the news about the refugee problem,\u201d says initiator and former UvA Political Science lecturer Rob Hagendijk. \u201cAnd a number of people have said that we need to do something. That\u2019s when I thought that we need to look closer to home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot an elitist endeavour"<\/h3>

In the petition<\/a>, Hagendijk writes that it is not an elitist endeavour to help the better educated primarily. \u201cAll refugees should be offered a perspective that ties in with their ambitions and capabilities. As Dutch people, we can play a part if everyone looks for possibilities and ideas in their own circles.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petition was prompted by a Hungarian colleague who encountered refugees at the Budapest train station and also met a professor among them. \u201cOnce these people have settled, they need to be enabled to pick up their lives again,\u201d says Hagendijk.<\/p>\n

One hundred refugees to Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences <\/h2>

Last week the universities and universities of applied sciences agreed to admit refugee students. Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, for example, announced that it would accept one hundred.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an excellent and wonderful idea,\u201d says Hagendijk. \u201cThe petition came at the same time as the consultations between the institutions on the refugees. But we also need to think of solutions in terms of jobs for researchers and scholars: how can we help those people?\u201d<\/p>\n

The petition asks the education institutions \u201cto remove bureaucratic obstacles, make funds and facilities available and support staff and student initiatives.\u201d The signatories call on Minister Bussemaker of Education, Culture and Science to lend material and political support.<\/p>\n

Meetings are being held in a number of cities to draw up plans to address this issue. Hagendijk: \u201cThere will be some overall coordination of these plans. What\u2019s going on and where\u2019s the expertise? There is of course a lot that needs to be arranged and fortunately people are trying to come up with solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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