Students in Aurora. Photo Guy Ackermans The Netherlands cannot afford to curtail the influx of international students seeking to obtain engineering degrees, says, among others, president of the board Sjoukje Heimovaara in de Volkskrant.
Heimovaara wrote the opinion piece on behalf of WUR and in collaboration with the rectors/chairpersons of the universities of Twente, Eindhoven and Groningen. They state that the Netherlands is facing ‘significant societal transitions in health care, energy production, food supply, climate, digitalisation, security and housing’. They add that ‘engineers play a decisive role’ in these transitions.
The group states that they have ‘grave concerns’ that ‘the Netherlands may make the same mistake Denmark has.’ Denmark revisited an earlier decision at the onset of November. The decision drastically reduced the number of English-spoken programmes in tertiary education, a decision that was overturned when employers complained about the increasing shortage of educated workers.
Outgoing Minister Dijkgraaf has prepared a draft legislative proposal to regulate the influx of international students, in part by reconsidering the language of the bachelor programmes. Nieuw Sociaal Contract, the new party led by Pieter Omtzigt, wants to take this one step further and make all programmes Dutch-spoken.
We will negate our reputation as an attractive destination for international talent
The authors state that the Netherlands cannot ‘afford to make technical bachelor programmes entirely or partially Dutch-spoken’, as the Netherlands needs international engineering students to compensate for the continuing decline in Dutch scholars choosing a technical profile.
The five rectors and chairs call for a renewed effort to increase the attractiveness of technical education among Dutch secondary scholars. But even so, there will simply be insufficient Dutch youths to meet the demand for engineers.
They point out that no less than one-quarter of the international students entering the Netherlands make their way to the Dutch employment market. ‘These international talents are indispensable.’
Even the discussion about restricting the use of English in scientific education already results in ‘doubt among international talents wishing to come to the Netherlands’, they state in the article. ‘Thus, we rapidly negate our reputation as an attractive destination for international talent, which will take us decades to rebuild.’
In de Volkskrant’s publication, the rectors and chairs also voice their concerns over the ‘considerable retrenchments in education and science that have been suggested by many political parties’. They point out that the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis sees investments in science purely as a cost item in its calculations to substantiate the electoral plans while ignoring the benefits. ‘Thus, cut-backs in education and science, as suggested by many parties, may appear logical, but they will end up costing society billions of euros.’
Source: Delta, Journalistic platform TU Delft
