Research shows: a billion euros shortage in higher education
Colleges and universities need hundreds of millions of euros extra every year. This is stated in a long-awaited report that the cabinet has made public today. Moreover, the money can be better distributed.
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Outgoing minister Van Engelshoven (D66) sent three reports to the Lower House this morning. The most important thing is about financing education: is there enough money?
Scientific education and research should receive an extra EUR 800 million annually, writes consultancy Strategy & from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Moreover, the universities have to catch up once, for which 300 million euros is needed.
Of that annual 800 million, 400 million should go to scientific research and 200 million is intended to “smooth out” lagging investments. With an additional 200 million euros, the universities can offer smaller-scale education.
"This research once again confirms what we have been saying for years: that a lot of money is needed," says AObdirector Marijtje Jongsma. "Already in 2016, we gave the then Minister of Education an 'unsecured check' for 295 million hours for all the unpaid overtime that we were forced to perform. And since 2017, together with WOinActie, we have been arguing for something to be done about the substandard funding. That is very important, especially with increasing student numbers, to be able to continue to fund both education and research."
The amounts that PricewaterhouseCoopers is now mentioning are still separate from the corona crisis, which also costs a lot of money. The report does not look beyond the year 2018. The hundreds of millions of the new loan system, in which the basic grant has been scrapped, also have nothing to do with it.
Research
The universities of applied sciences should also receive a larger budget. They have enough money for their education, the rapporteurs believe, but not for their practice-oriented research. They are currently taking 65 million euros from the rest of their budget to pay for that higher vocational education research.
And actually the universities of applied sciences should do more research, is the ambition. For this they need an extra 120 to 270 million euros per year, depending on the desired number of lecturers.
All in all, this therefore amounts to approximately 1 billion euros per year for universities and universities of applied sciences combined. That is - coincidentally or not - the amount that Minister Van Engelshoven himself mentioned more than a year ago.
Distribution
More money is a simple message, but how do you distribute it properly? That is a completely different question, and consultancy Berenschot was allowed to consider it. That report was also sent to the Lower House.
At the moment the government money largely follows the students. That has its drawbacks. If a study program attracts few students, such as Dutch language and literature, it becomes difficult to survive. And what can a university of applied sciences in a shrinking region do to stay afloat? Should it sometimes offer fewer courses?
Colleges and universities would like 'more stable' funding that depends less on student numbers. Then they can look ahead better. Berenschot understands this, but the bureau does not draw a firm conclusion.
Big differences
According to the advice, the educational institutions differ so much from each other that it is difficult to solve everyone's problems by adjusting the funding. There is something in that: a small independent teacher training college, for example, is hardly comparable to a large university. And with stable financing, other problems arise. What do you do with a sudden growth in the number of students? The popularity of courses cannot always be predicted.
So it mainly comes down to political considerations. What are you doing with higher vocational education in the shrinking region? How do you keep small but important disciplines alive that attract too few students?
According to Berenschot, it is best to look at the 'fixed base', in other words the amount that the educational institutions receive anyway. On historical grounds, some institutions now receive more fixed funding than others, but you can make new choices if you want to save that one Dutch study program or if you want to support a university of applied sciences in the shrinking region.
Tricky game
But it will be a difficult game, because exactly how much support do they need? Universities and universities of applied sciences have still not mapped out exactly what a study program costs. Teaching hours, overheads, facilities, it is all impossible to determine in detail. It would be good if this problem were tackled by the institutions, the minister writes in her accompanying letter to the House.
There are more interests at play, which are largely not discussed in the reports. For example, some political parties hope that thanks to 'more stable' funding, programs will hunt less (foreign) students and do their best to guide students to the most suitable program - even if they do not offer that program themselves.
Also read: 'Political parties promise education billions extra'
