WO&E

No additional university lecturers, despite the scrapping of the basic grant

With the hundreds of millions of euros from the new loan system, the universities have hired few new teachers. In fact, proportionally there are now as many as in 2012. Teachers have been added in higher professional education.

Tekst Hoger Onderwijs Persbureau / webredactie AOb - - 3 Minuten om te lezen

students_in_class

image: Nanne Meulendijks

It was one of the great promises of the then minister Jet Bussemaker. Students would no longer receive a basic grant, but better education. In 2025 there will be 4000 additional lecturers at colleges and universities, she promised: 1400 at universities and 2600 at colleges.

Little of that comes to the universities. There are more teachers, but there are even more students. In 2012 there were 22 students per university lecturer and that is still the case. It has even deteriorated slightly after the comma.

The number of professors increased by 500 in those years, 1200 associate and associate professors were added and another 1000 'other' teachers. But the number of students has grown by 67.000 in the meantime. The four technical universities have relatively the most lecturers. In Rotterdam there are twice as many students per teacher as in Twente: 30 against 15.

Classes are getting smaller in higher vocational education

It is better at the universities of applied sciences. Since 2012, they have hired more than 4000 additional teachers, partly thanks to the hundreds of millions of euros from the new loan system. The number of HBO students increased, but the number of teachers grew relatively faster. The classes are getting smaller. It saves two students per teacher. However, as in academic education, there are considerable differences per educational institution. Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, for example, has 17 students per teacher, while Avans has 25: almost half more. The classes are even smaller at some small colleges. The University of the Arts The Hague has less than 10 students per teacher.

reservations

The student-teacher ratio in higher professional education has improved especially for 2016 and has changed little since then. In the run-up to the millions of the basic grant, the universities of applied sciences made so-called 'pre-investments'. They used money from their reserves to (among other things) hire additional teachers. But in recent years, that trend has flattened. The universities of applied sciences do not think government funding is predictable enough, writes the umbrella association on its website. 'Universities of applied sciences cannot continue to spend public funds if it is not transparent what the government will compensate for this afterwards. Working with a negative budget for years is not justifiable from a business perspective. '

VSNU: 'We use the money well, but it is sailing against the wind'

The fact that the student-teacher ratio at the universities is not getting better is because the budget per student is only decreasing despite the extra money from the basic grant, the university association VSNU says. The government grant per student decreased from 20.100 euros in 2000 (source: VSNU) to around 13.000 euros in 2019 (source: Radboud University). “We use the money well, but it is sailing against the wind,” says VSNU spokesperson Bart Pierik. “The resources of the 'student loan' are barely enough to stop the bleeding, so it is difficult to hire additional employees.” Because research funding from universities does not grow with student numbers.

AOb: 'The balance between education and research must be restored'

“Over the years, more and more research had to be recruited from subsidy providers, such as NWO,” explains AObdriver Donald Pechler. “Research at universities was increasingly financed with external money instead of structural money for the universities. The research is then carried out more in projects by scientists with a temporary contract AOb believes that the balance between education and research must be restored.

Investigation time

Uit investigation of the NOS it turned out at the end of September that universities and universities of applied sciences would like to use the loan system millions for 'more intensive and small-scale education', but that they already have enough trouble keeping up with the growing student numbers. The AOb emphasizes that education only improves with permanent contracts and more university staff teachers. 'Hiring teachers without research time in often temporary positions is a threat to the quality of education and the necessary interrelation of research and education', said AObdirector Marijtje Jongsma about this.

Also read: 'More money is needed for permanent research jobs'

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