Cutbacks in MBO and higher education: no one happy, some furious
They are very surprised about the cutback of 149 million euros, write universities, academic hospitals, colleges, MBO institutions and students in a joint letter to education minister Van Engelshoven. The unions also reacted jointly. AOb-chairman Tamar van Gelder: "This must be reversed immediately."
Picture: Type tank
How could it have happened, the institutions and students wonder. On Friday 21 May, the signatures were placed on a comprehensive agreement on corona support, the National Education Programme. And that Monday they get a message from OCW: watch out, there are going to be cutbacks. While the cabinet in February in a letter wrote clearly to the House of Representatives that the corona support came from outside the OCW budget.
Universities
“I'm ecstatic,” says chairman Pieter Duisenberg of the VSNU university association. “It's a strange state of affairs. The minister may explain why this is so. You can't tell me that a problem suddenly popped up over the weekend that wasn't known before. So there was incomplete information in the agreement.”
VSNU chairman Pieter Duisenberg: 'I'm furious, it's a strange state of affairs. The minister may explain why
The universities are already short of 1,1 billion euros, he says, referring to a recent report that was also pleased with outgoing minister Van Engelshoven. How can you book a cutback, Duisenberg wonders.
Mbo
The MBO Council, the representative of the MBO institutions, finds it strange that there has been no consultation about 'this imminent setback'. The council supports the measures, for example to extend student finance, but finds it strange that no extra money is coming from the ministry. Instead, education must find the money itself in the budget, so writes the council. "This will happen at a time when the extra resources from the NPO are desperately needed to limit the damage caused by corona as much as possible."
Colleges
Chairman Maurice Limmen of the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences chooses fewer big words than VSNU. He is not savage or blazing. “This cabinet has invested enormously in education,” he says. “You have to see it against that background, and that also explains the tone of our letter.”
The letter does indeed sound rather calm. But there is something wrong with these cutbacks, says Limmen. The ministry should not link student grants to the higher education budget. “We assume that we will find a solution for this together,” he says.
LSVb
Student organizations LSVb and ISO remain less diplomatic than Limmen. “It is incomprehensible that the cabinet is now coming up with this,” says Lyle Muns, chairman of the National Student Union. “Today's letter is a polite way of saying that.”
Student organization LSVb: 'It is incomprehensible that the cabinet is coming up with this now'
According to him, there are two possible explanations. “Either the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science did not know about this itself and then it is quite an embarrassment, or they did know and then they deliberately withheld important information.”
Promises
Chairman Dahran Çoban of the Intercity Student Consultation is also angry. “It was promised that students would be supported in these difficult times. We were super happy with that. And now it is being taken away from the educational institutions, as if students had to choose between their income and their quality of education.”
As if students had to choose between their income and their quality of education
Extending the right to student finance and a public transport card should no longer be called corona support, she believes. “Do you envision this in other sectors? That Minister Koolmees provides wage support to companies and then cuts benefits, for example?”
Grumpy
According to the letter writers, the cut came as a “complete surprise”. This applies even more to student organizations than to universities and colleges. The students had to read it themselves in the spring memorandum. “I am also grumpy about that,” says ISO chairman Çoban.
Structural money
The unions are also 'unpleasantly surprised' by the cutbacks, they write in an email to the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Education. Van Gelder: "This is frustrating. In a crisis where billions of euros are needed, how can you first promise one-off money and then book a cut in a budget that is already insufficient? This must be reversed immediately. The ministry can let me know this afternoon going to explain." The AOb pleads for some time for structural investments. Schools cannot solve problems such as a high workload and the teacher shortage with only incidental money.
The Ministry's explanatory memorandum states that a future cabinet can, if desired, find a different way to cover the costs. Members of Parliament have already reacted with surprise.
Would you like to know more about the National Education Programme? Check out our special page.
