The newly appointed Dutch Minister for Education Eppo Bruins recently announced an upcoming wave of budget cuts to Higher Education institutions (HEIs), limiting the “excessive internationalisation” that has characterised the country until now. EURASHE reacts to the news.
First introduced in May, the Balanced Internationalisation bill would put a cap on the number of incoming international students and increase the prevalence of Dutch as a teaching language, with the aim of striking a balance for the sake of the Dutch Higher Education system.
Many Dutch HEIs have already voiced their concerns with respect to the bill, including the Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (Vereniging Hogescholen). EURASHE fully agrees and supports these concerns, which are reflected by our Dutch member institutions as well. We believe that a one-size-fits-all approach is not the way forward and that budget cuts may not only hinder the development of higher education, particularly applied education, but also have detrimental effects on the interconnected nature of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).