Minister is not going to help university study Dutch
Education Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven (D66) is not going to do anything for the time being to ensure that university courses in Dutch can survive. She does want to investigate the situation in higher professional education teacher training courses.
Picture: National government
The popularity of the Dutch study has declined sharply, reported Het Parool en de Volkskrant last month. The number of registrations at universities has plummeted throughout the Netherlands in recent years, from 500 first-years in 2008 to over 200 in 2017. The VU University in Amsterdam is even considering abolishing the program.
No signals
But the minister knows nothing about that, she writes in answer to parliamentary questions of the CDA and GroenLinks. According to her, there are "no signs" that the study of Dutch is in danger of disappearing, not at the VU and not at other universities. And if it were, you shouldn't want to keep programs that are in danger of disappearing alive at all costs, says Van Engelshoven.
She wasn't happy about the news either. “The Humanities, which include the Dutch programs, are indispensable in the system of university education and research. They have an important value for our language, language proficiency and culture ”, she writes. There is also a threat of a shortage of Dutch teachers in the long term.
But above all, young people must be able to choose for themselves what they want to study. Nor will it take any measures to increase the intake, as the sector is already doing that itself. Moreover, the provisional enrollment figures indicate that more students in Nijmegen and Leiden have once again opted for university studies of Dutch. "This is good news."
Cause for concern
The opposite is the case in higher professional education. While the intake for second-grade teacher training in the subject of Dutch was stable in recent years, this year the provisional counts point to a sharp decrease: a quarter less than last year. “Reason for concern”, writes Van Engelshoven. She wants to discuss the cause with the relevant study programs.
Van Engelshoven is not exactly sure why hardly anyone seems to want to study Dutch. But she sees a lot of interest in "renewed courses with a broader scope with a more interdisciplinary approach." Institutions could respond to this, she suggests.
