According to think tank DenkWerk, restricting the free choice of degree subject would help tackle labour shortages in construction and healthcare, for instance. Photo Shutterstock
The idea of restricting freedom of choice in what you study is resurrected from time to time. Some believe it is an unavoidable measure if the Netherlands is to have enough workers in sectors that are crucial to society, such as healthcare, engineering and construction.
The latest organization to air the idea is the independent think tank DenkWerk in its recent report ‘Choosing and Distributing’. The think tank includes some impressive names: the former minister of Economic Affairs Hans Wijers, the economist Barbara Baarsma and the senior researcher at the Scientific Council for Government Policy Haroon Sheikh are all members.
The report’s authors note that school leavers mainly choose what subject to specialize in based on their interests rather than the labour market prospects. ‘That is not helping in tackling shortages of workers in construction and healthcare’, says the report. It also argues that freedom of choice leads to a waste of talent. As evidence, it points to the degrees with the highest proportions of students who regret making that choice. These are in fields where there are relatively few jobs, mainly the humanities and social sciences such as language and culture or journalism and communications. Over the next few years, 140,000 more students will graduate in these degree subjects than the forecast ‘job openings’, to use the DenkWerk terminology.
‘And yet we place no restrictions on the intake for these degrees,’ says the report. The think tank immediately comes up with a remedy: use enrolment limits to reduce the number of people studying subjects with poor labour market prospects. Apparently, Germany already does this. Of course it’s awful if you regret your choice of degree, or if you can’t get a job in your field after graduation. But is that really the same as ‘wasting talent’? And what is worse: regretting a choice you made that doesn’t turn out well or having the government decide for you what you’ll study? A government that wants to introduce enrolment limits on a large scale to restrict access to degrees that may not train you for the professions that are in highest demand but that you are passionate about?
WUR has enough degree switchers who can testify to how miserable you can feel sitting through lectures for a degree that turns out not to be your thing at all. That would be even worse if it was the government that put you there. And which government, anyway? That is also something to take into account when politics has become so unpredictable. You can imagine access to Wageningen domains being restricted under the current regime. Anyway, it is not even necessary. There are better ways to get people interested in the professions that are in high demand. Make the work more appealing. Increase the pay. Give a tax rebate if you have to. The excuse that the Netherlands ‘simply can’t let everyone switch to a job with the highest added value’ and we therefore have to restrict people’s freedom to choose what degree they do is just not good enough.
This Comment presents the views and analyses of the editorial board, formulated following discussions among the editors.
