{"id":89966,"date":"2018-09-25T16:18:58","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T14:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=89966"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:23:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:23:06","slug":"spending-money-sooner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2018\/09\/25\/spending-money-sooner\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister proposes spending basic grant money sooner than planned"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s alright if universities of applied sciences and research universities spend the millions of euro freed up by the new loan system a few years earlier. Minister Van Engelshoven wrote this the very day lecturers across the Netherlands protested her policy.<\/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\tChristian Dubovan (Unsplash)<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

University lecturers in a number of cities are protesting the current budget cuts in higher education. The government should scrap this economy measure (or \u2018efficiency abatement\u2019) according to<\/a> the WOinActie protest group. In fact, they say the higher education budget should actually be increased by over EUR 1 billion per year.<\/p>\n

The lecturers have found \u2018a charming way\u2019 to protest the plans, wrote<\/a> the Minister today in her letter to the House of Representatives. \u201cLecturers and professors have taken their lectures outdoors. This way, everyone can share the fruits of their knowledge and expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Workload<\/h2>

Van Engelshoven acknowledges that pressure of work at the universities is quite high. And she is prepared to think along about a solution. For example, she intends to increase the stability of the institutions\u2019 finances, so that it becomes easier for them to offer staff members an open-ended contract.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of this month, however, the research universities and universities of applied sciences came with a more radical proposal<\/a> to alleviate the current financial pressure on the higher education sector: why wait for years spending the hundreds of millions that will become available thanks to the new loan system, if we can already do so right now?<\/p>\n

The basic idea is that the government allocates funds to higher education a few years before they actually enter its coffers: this is called a \u2018carryover\u2019. Minister Van Engelshoven writes that she is quite sympathetic to the idea.<\/p>\n

Research universities and universities of applied sciences are currently working together with their representative bodies on solid plans for spending the millions released by the cancellation of the basic grant. But if they have good reasons for spending some of these funds sooner than expected, the Minister doesn\u2019t mind cooperating.<\/p>\n\n\t

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Een lijst met artikelen<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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