Education Council: “Back to the drawing board with the internationalization bill”
If it is up to the Education Council, Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf will have to further reconsider his bill that aims to put the internationalization of higher education on the right track. The current proposal creates too much uncertainty, says chairman Edith Hooge.
When critical members of the House of Representatives urged outgoing minister Dijkgraaf to rush to limit the influx of foreign students last January, he said that we must wait for a recommendation from the Education Council.
Dijkgraaf has been working for two years on his “Internationalization in Balance” bill, a collection of measures to protect the Dutch language in higher education and to allow, within programs, an enrollment restriction for English-language programs. He wanted to hear the views of the Education Council on the bill.
Justification
So now there is new advice, and it comes down to this: Think about it more carefully, because the consequences have not been well researched and the justification falls short. Besides, there are other ways to achieve the same goals.
There is only one thing in the bill that meets with the approval of the Education Council: the numerus fixus for English-language (or foreign-language) programs. That could improve the accessibility of education for Dutch-speaking students, the council believes.
The VVD is also in favor of this and even submitted an amendment last month to enact the measures concerning the numerus fixus into law. Dijkgraaf did not want that yet. It must be done in conjunction with everything else, he felt, and he has not yet submitted the bill.
It was almost inevitable that the advice to further reconsider met with skepticism in the House of Representatives. “The diligence of legislation should not suffer from time pressure,” Edith Hooge, president of the Education Council, believes.
Politicians have been working on such a law for years. Can the cabinet introduce part of it already and deliberate longer about the rest?
“We advise and identify the risks of this bill, but say nothing about the pace the minister should maintain. That is up to the politicians.”
At the same time, some things are in danger of moving too fast, according to your advice. For example, Dijkgraaf wants to subject current English-language courses to a test of whether they have chosen the right language of instruction. If not, they should quickly switch to Dutch.
“And we think that is disproportionate. It creates a great deal of uncertainty because no clear conditions have yet been established under which programs can deviate from Dutch as the language of instruction.”
Surely the programs could have been working on substantiating the language they chose a long time ago? If so, they would have had more than nine months.
“The bill requires institutions to engage in self-direction and they could already start doing that. We also think they should better justify their language of instruction. But ultimately, according to this bill, the minister will have the power to grant or refuse permission to teach in a foreign language. That creates uncertainty, and then nine months is far too short. Suppose you do something like this at a technical college where half the teachers come from abroad, then a quick switch to Dutch-language education is not feasible. It also leads to legal uncertainty.”
The council suggests separate funding for Dutch- and English-language programs.
“You could indeed see if that is a way to make the influx of international students manageable.”
Do you need to have that complicated discussion about funding before dealing with this bill?
“There is now an incentive in funding to recruit a lot of international students. It would be good to look at that if you want institutions to behave differently. The purpose of the law and the measures chosen must match up.”
Is it crazy for politicians to want to impose language requirements?
“Language proficiency is important, in all courses. So is the language proficiency of teachers and researchers, sometimes in languages other than just English, such as French or German. It is also good if international lecturers and researchers master Dutch at a basic level for the foreseeable future to participate in society and become more involved in the community of their university or college.”
The Education Council’s advice was made public today. Minister Dijkgraaf thanked the Council but did not yet give a substantive response. However, he does hope that higher education will get started already.
“I have asked colleges and universities to look at what can already be done in addition to the bill, in anticipation of that bill.” The House of Representatives also asked him to do so.
