Timo Kos on the cuts and elections: ‘We’re fighting for the future of our university’
The university may seem a bit subdued in the run-up to the Dutch elections on 29 October. The media has barely mentioned education as an election issue, but behind the scenes the university is lobbying hard, says acting President of the Executive Board, Timo Kos. ‘We’re fighting for the future of our university.’
Leiden is exerting pressure behind the scenes, both alone and together with the other Dutch universities and Kenniscoalitie partners. Because there are still grave concerns, says Kos, acting President, and as Vice-President of the Executive Board responsible for the university’s finances. ‘The cuts announced by the Schoof government for the coming years have already been incorporated into the ministries’ budgets and reflected in the national funding allocations for all universities, including ours. So they definitely haven’t been scrapped.’
Nor will that happen once a new cabinet has been appointed. ‘For our university, the cuts amount to 30 million per year by 2030, which is a huge amount of money. This will mean much less money for reducing the workload, and a decrease in the breadth and quality of our research and teaching, and consequently also in innovation and resilience in the Netherlands.’
Painful measures
The faculties and services will be forced to take painful measures. ‘In concrete terms, this means hundreds of jobs will eventually disappear at the faculties. Although this will be through natural attrition, it will still hit hard. We won’t be able to replace expertise within disciplines, and a significant number of elective courses will be cut, leaving students with fewer options. PhD positions will also disappear and our staff’s workload may continue to increase.
‘And that’s not to mention the effects of the Balanced Internationalisation Bill (WiB): degree programmes will have a numerus fixus or will have to be converted into Dutch, as with the English-taught track in our Bachelor’s in Psychology. And the assessment of non-Dutch-taught programmes (Toets Andertalig Onderwijs, TAO) will remain in place for new degree programmes, despite the universities’ self-governance deal with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.’
Demonstrations and campaigning
On 27 October, students and staff protested again. WO in Actie and the unions, with the support of the Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), had called on people to attend a meeting in Utrecht, and in the evening, many of them watched and fact-checked the national election debate for students. ‘We still need to raise our voices at such moments’, says Kos. ‘We and 12 other universities recently launched a legal challenge against the state for unilaterally breaking the administrative agreement.’
‘All demonstrations and campaigning are definitely worthwhile’, Kos emphasises. ‘The previously announced cuts have been reversed in part. But it’s softening the blow of even more draconian cuts, rather than the full reversal we continue to call for. And on top of that, new indirect budget cuts have been announced – for example, the universities will not be reimbursed for this year’s price increases. As a result, our university alone stands to lose several million euros.’
Lisbon agreements
Kos thinks the Dutch government should honour not only the administrative agreements with the sector, but also what are known as the Lisbon agreements, which were made in Europe in 2002. Each country pledged to spend at least 3% of its GDP on investment in Research & Development (R&D). ‘In the Netherlands, we only just manage 2.3%, which is below the EU average and less than leading countries such as Germany and Scandinavian countries.’
Exploitation
‘It’s nothing short of a miracle that we perform so well in R&D and innovation in this country, but it’s not sustainable, and it also explains the high workload at universities. Structural underfunding like this amounts to exploiting people. It has to stop. As a country, we need to invest at least an additional 2.6 billion in academic research and teaching to achieve the European average.’
Elections
‘Research and calculations by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) show that every euro we invest in higher education and research delivers a fourfold return, making it a good investment. So when deciding who to vote for, take good note of which political parties see research and teaching as spending that can be cut and which ones see it as an investment in future prosperity and the well-being of the Netherlands.’
European interests
There is increasing awareness in Europe of the need to remain competitive and innovative, and additional investment is crucial to this, says Kos. ‘Given the developments in the US and China and their implications for us, investing in research and teaching is more crucial than ever. It will enable us to safeguard our strategic sovereignty – in terms of the economy and technology, but also politically, socially and culturally. Since the Draghi report [report by the European Commission on the future of EU competitiveness authored by Mario Draghi, Ed.], this has been a strategic priority in nearly every European country, and it should also be so in the Netherlands.’
Messing with freedom
Kos mentions another threat posed by recent government policy. ‘It’s not just about money but about freedom. More and more political parties are messing with the freedom and fundamental rights that are the pillars of our democracy, including academic freedom. It’s deeply concerning because once they’re gone, it’s hard to get them back. People fought long and hard for them.’
New strategy
There are some developments behind the scenes, says Kos. The Schoof government asked former ASML boss Peter Wennink to translate the Draghi report to the Netherlands and draw up advice for a National Technology Strategy to achieve the promised 3% in R&D investment. This would entail a growth or investment fund to boost knowledge generation in promising sectors, including the life sciences, defence and space.
‘The Leiden Bio Science Park (LBSP), which our university co-founded, was asked to develop a biotechnology investment plan to the tune of a few billion,’ says Kos. ‘A financial boost of this scale for the Dutch life sciences sector would significantly benefit the Leiden Bio Science Park, and indirectly support the research and education needed to sustain it.’
Economic progress
‘And for these new technologies to succeed, you also need graduates and research in the social and behavioural sciences and the humanities, which means, for example, psychologists, linguists and legal specialists’, says Kos. He also thinks that large-scale investments like these would help make the Dutch economy more innovative and competitive. ‘That in turn would support investment in high-quality research and teaching. A country can only continue to spend in these areas if it generates enough revenue, and that is easier to achieve when the economy is thriving.’
Working tirelessly
But we’re not there yet. In the short term, Kost hopes that students and staff choose wisely on 29 October and that a stable government is formed. ‘Much is at play in the coming period. In the meantime, we are working tirelessly – both behind the scenes and in public – to highlight the importance of high-quality research and teaching to the future of the Netherlands, now and in the upcoming coalition talks. We’re fighting for the future of our fantastic university. Our students and staff can count on that.’