Higher education fears new round of cutbacks
Higher education fears new cutbacks now that there is once again a budget deficit at the Ministry of Education. Should the way in which student numbers are predicted need to be changed?
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This year, the ministry will be EUR 172 million short: there are more students and graduates than expected. Next year a shortage of 200 million is expected. Education is looking at it with suspicion, because an earlier budget deficit led to a round of cutbacks, the so-called efficiency discount of 183 million euros.
Systematic shortage
"For 2018, the higher estimate seems to be covered, but we are concerned about the years after that," says a spokesperson for the VSNU university association. "Will we get sufficient resources or will there be another gap in the budget?"
The estimate must be more reliable, according to the students. “It cannot be the case that shifts have to be made year on year,” says Rhea van der Dong, chairman of the Interurban Student Consultation (ISO).
“It cannot be the case that shifts have to be made year after year”, chairman Rhea van der Dong ISO
Member of Parliament Harry van der Molen of the ruling party CDA also finds it “striking” that there is a budget deficit at OCW “year in year out”. “The ministry must take a good look at whether there is a better way to predict student numbers. We cannot take interim measures every year because people have estimated the influx incorrectly. ”
Quite good
But there is nothing wrong with the way the estimate is drawn up, says a spokesperson for OCW. “It may sound strange, but we are quite good at predicting student numbers. This year we were only 0,84 percent off. But on a budget of several billions you still get a difference of more than one hundred million euros. ”
"It may sound strange, but we are quite good at predicting student numbers," says an OCW spokesperson.
The ministry does want to see whether it can deal better with those differences from a “budgetary point of view”. “Now we respond every year to a deficit or surplus. We want to find out whether we can better balance those peaks and troughs, for example by taking an average, but I can't say anything about that yet. ”
Cutbacks
The spring memorandum also shows that the cutbacks amounting to 183 million euros for all education, also known as efficiency discount, will remain in the books for the time being, despite protests. The Minister for action group WOinactie has last week an ultimatum and threatens with national actions if the efficiency discount with Budget Day is not off the table.
Initiator Rens Bod assumes that the government parties will solve the new deficit among themselves. “It cannot be the case that it will be shifted back to higher education,” he says.
