Ensuring participation in loan system millions
Colleges and universities have promised that their students can have a say in how the loan system will be spent millions of euros. The SP fears that things are not going well. Minister Van Engelshoven will wait a while.
Image: Pixabay
The basic grant has been abolished, so that universities and colleges can receive extra money. What are they going to do with it? Students can participate in the decision-making process, says one agreement with the national student organizations LSVb and ISO.
But that is not yet running smoothly everywhere. SP Member of Parliament Frank Futselaar saw two examples that worried him: both with the University of Twente as with the Tilburg University the participation had difficulty in obtaining information. He asked written questions to the minister. The National Student Union (LSVb) also sees problems. “There is not enough participation at the moment,” says chairman Tariq Sewbaransingh. “It could be a lot better. Participation councils must be given more time to consider matters and they must also be involved in major decisions earlier. ”
Transparent
Last Monday answered Minister Van Engelshoven questions Futselaar in parliament. She writes that colleges and universities must make it clear to the employee representatives in their budgets how the student advance funds have been processed. All of this must be done transparently and for the time being it assumes that the agreements will be complied with.
The participation council in Tilburg has now approved the budget. But with your back to the wall. “No voting was not an option today,” said one of the groups. Otherwise the extra money could not be spent at all. This was also the case in Twente: the resources threatened to be frozen if the council did not approve the budget. With the vague promise of more public participation in the future, the budget has nevertheless been approved.
Nuclear option
You can't blame that, says SP'er Futselaar. “The position of university councils and student factions is difficult compared to a board that has been in place for a long time and has a whole administrative apparatus behind it. Of course, the members of the council just need to get all the information they ask for. But holding back a budget is a very nuclear option. I understand that they do not quickly reach for that. ”
He had expected more from the minister. “For the first time, the participation has to participate in decision-making about the millions of the loan system. And we know that employee participation does not run smoothly at every institution. Then you expect a certain degree of direction from the ministry. ”
