Photo NOS screenshot In higher and further education, the government wants more of a focus on education and research ‘aimed at what the Netherlands needs’, said the King today in the Budget Day speech.
After speaking about migration, defence and agriculture, the King turned to higher education today in the Budget Day speech. ‘Firm choices need to be made here for both substantive and financial reasons,’ said King Willem-Alexander.
Dutch language
‘One of those choices is to reduce the number of foreign students and make the Dutch language the norm again in higher education,’ he said. Earlier, he briefly mentioned student migration as a problem alongside other forms of migration.
That was all. Later today, it will become clear where the planned cuts will be made. Education minister Eppo Bruins (NSC, formerly ChristenUnie) announced earlier that higher education would have to make cuts of one billion euros a year.
To put this in perspective, the educational section of last year’s Budget Day speech was all about equal opportunities, discrimination and the mental wellbeing of young people. The year before that, big investments were announced for advanced vocational education, higher education and science to create ‘stability and more scope’.
