Minister will not provide House with local English-language education plans
Fewer English-language programs? The House of Representatives will not be receiving any plans from individual universities and colleges for the time being, according to a recent letter from Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf.
A good portion of the House of Representatives wants to limit the internationalization of universities and colleges. To begin with, there should be fewer English-language programs, many parties believe.
At the end of January, they supported a remarkable motion. Within eight weeks, the cabinet, together with universities and colleges of higher education, should draw up a plan to quickly reduce the number of English-language programs. The plan had to include concrete measures “that each individual institution will take to firmly reduce the proportion of English-language programs.”
Self-governance
In the meantime, the university association UNL and the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences have sent their plans for “self-governance” to the minister indicating how they intend to manage internationalization on their own. In doing so, they are anticipating a bill that Dijkgraaf is working on.
Their plans generally concern the influx of foreign students and the provision of Dutch-language education. For example, universities want to start a Dutch-language track within all major English-language bachelor’s programs, and a small number of programs will become entirely Dutch-language again.
Colleges promise to cut back on recruiting abroad. According to their plans, they will also set a hard upper limit on foreign intake in economics colleges.
Dismissed
But they do not provide a list of measures of the individual universities and colleges. Minister Dijkgraaf will not provide this, either. With the national plans for self-governance of the two umbrella organizations, he considers the motion of the House of Representatives to be “dealt with.”
He appreciates the intentions of the universities and colleges, Dijkgraaf writes in his response. “These intentions have yet to be discussed with the co-determining bodies of the individual institutions,” he explains, “but may have the effect of reducing the proportion of completely foreign-language bachelor’s from 30 percent to 21 percent.”
Dijkgraaf prefers to rely on good self-governance rather than harsh national policies. After all, one region is not like another. In areas that are shrinking, international students may be desperately needed. Similarly, one sector may need more foreign students than another.
Increased
In recent decades, the number of foreign students has increased substantially. At university bachelor’s programs, 31 percent of first-year students are international. At colleges, it is 11 percent.
