HBO on track with extra teachers
By 2025, universities of applied sciences must employ 2.500 extra lecturers. That will probably not be a problem: higher professional education is well ahead of schedule.
Image: NHL Hogeschool
It was one of the great promises that outgoing Minister of Education Bussemaker made when she abolished the basic grant two years ago: thanks to the proceeds from the new loan system, no fewer than four thousand teachers would be added to higher education.
The PvdA minister is about to retire and that is why we are looking at what will become of her ambition: has a start been made? Unlike the universities, the universities of applied sciences are very well on track.
The universities of applied sciences had to take on 2.500 of those four thousand lecturers, Bussemaker stated Strategic Agenda. She counted in full-time jobs from the year 2012.
First sight
At first glance, the universities of applied sciences have long since achieved that target. In four years, enough higher vocational education teachers have been recruited to jointly fill 3.155 full-time jobs: more than six hundred more than Bussemaker forecast for the year 2025.
However, there are now also many more students in higher professional education: there are 25 thousand extra. But even if we correct for this growth, things are going in the right direction. All things considered, there are already 1.900 additional HBO lecturers.
In 2012 there were 22,5 students per higher vocational education teacher, four years later that is only 20,4. Incidentally, there are considerable differences between universities of applied sciences. Some have less than fifteen students per teacher, others are well over twenty.
It is striking that universities are nowhere near following the pace of the universities of applied sciences. Hardly any additional teachers have been added to academic education, if you factor in the increase in the number of students.
Equal height
So the teacher-student ratio in higher professional education is on par with that in academic higher education, which previously had a head start. There are now about twenty students per teacher in both HBO and WO.
© HOP. Source: Association of Universities of Applied Sciences. HAS and iPabo have been left out because an error has probably crept into their figures.
Scientists are currently using the hashtag #WOinactie to get more funding from the cabinet for university education. They think there should be four thousand university lecturers. This action is supported by various universities. A petition has been signed almost 2900 times.
