It makes no difference: sector plans retained at expense of grants for young scientists
The government programme shows that the cabinet is going full steam ahead with the historically large cuts in higher education and science. In total, the cuts add up to over one billion euros. UNL president Caspar van den Berg: ‘The cabinet is throwing up its own glasses with this. The cuts in education and research will lead to the Netherlands' earning capacity deteriorating. We will have even bigger labour market shortages, and groundbreaking research from the Netherlands will disappear. That the sector plans remain in place is important, but exchanging one cut for another hardly does any damage overall. It makes no difference.’
The coalition agreement that was presented before the summer already made it clear that unprecedented cuts would be made to universities. Today, Minister Bruins announced that the €215 million cut in sector plans will be exchanged for a €215 million cut in start-up grants and NWO. It also appears that in the Research and Science Fund, hard cuts will be made to large-scale scientific infrastructure, the Regieorgaan Open Science NL and the starting and stimulus grants. One consequence of this will be that more than a thousand scientists will be duped every year by not receiving start-up or incentive grants. The grants give young, talented researchers room for research by, for example, purchasing equipment or appointing a PhD student. Cutting away these grants will again make the foundation of science shaky and put young researchers under great pressure. The long-study fine and cuts related to international students are also included in the coalition programme. Van den Berg: ‘What the minister is doing here is a waistcoat-pocket operation. The one billion cut still stands; this blow to students and staff remains just as big.’
Earlier, it became clear that a large majority (69%) of voters think it is a bad idea that the government wants to cut universities and science. The Draghi report was also released this week, showing that additional investment in education and research is actually needed if Europe and the Netherlands are to remain internationally competitive.
(Translated using DeepL)
