The Hague – Geert Wilders (PVV), Dilan Yesilgoz (VVD), Caroline van der Plas (BBB) and Pieter Omtzigt (NSC) during the presentation of the outline agreement. Photo ANP Koen van Weel The PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB political parties have managed to come to terms on the general points of a coalition government agreement. The consequences for university research and education are far-reaching.
Science will be hit badly. The parties want to scrap the funding for the national sector plans, in which universities make joint agreements on their education and research. That amounts to 215 million euros a year. The Research and Science fund will also have to make savings of 1.1 billion euros over the next few years. The National Growth Fund, set up to boost the knowledge economy, has already been suspended and will not be returning. That is a saving of 6.8 billion euros over the next 10 years. Students will also face major changes. The ‘slow student fine’ is set to return and student grants will become less generous.
In an initial reaction, WUR President Sjoukje Heimovaara calls it a worrying agreement. ‘I am shocked by what I have read in the outline agreement. This will have a concerning impact on universities, in particular in terms of the work pressure our people are under, our research and our education. We will study the agreement further and we still need to see how the details play out, but we find various substantive policy choices in our domain very worrying with an eye to the future.’
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