Discontinuation of the Development of the Master’s in Environmental Humanities
In recent months, a number of academics, a sounding board group and the relevant directors of education, in collaboration with Campus The Hague, have been working on the development of a new Master’s programme: Environmental Humanities. With this programme, we aimed to offer a new and necessary perspective on environmental issues from the Humanities, by approaching them through cultural, historical and ethical dimensions. Despite seemingly favourable prospects, the Faculty Board has had to decide to discontinue the development of this programme.
Macro-efficiency Assessment
A necessary step for launching a new publicly funded programme is the macro-efficiency assessment, which examines whether a programme is viable and can be sustainably integrated into the national higher education landscape. Initial signals appeared positive: a survey among current students showed strong interest in the programme, indicating sufficient potential intake. These findings were also used to build a business case for the programme, which showed a favourable financial outlook.
Unfortunately, we must conclude that we cannot successfully meet the labour market criterion of the assessment. Although there are clear indications that this programme would add value to the labour market, at this stage it has not been possible to secure the concrete agreements with employers regarding the career prospects of our graduates that the assessment requires.
This raises the question of what this conclusion means for other future plans for new Humanities programmes, which will also need to meet the labour market criterion. We regard this as an important point of attention, one that must be taken into account in good time and be explicitly addressed in further developments within our Faculty.