The parties forming the coalition government plan to invest heavily in education, research and innovation. This will reverse the previous government's cuts to education. Caspar van den Berg, chair of Universities of the Netherlands: ‘It is very good news that the coalition parties fully endorse the view that investing in education, research and innovation is crucial for the future of the Netherlands. These investments will enable universities to make an important contribution to solving the major social issues facing the Netherlands.’
The coalition agreement stipulates that a total of one and a half billion euros will be invested in education and science. The investments are in line with the coalition's ambition to invest 3 per cent of gross domestic product in research and innovation. Van den Berg: ‘It is an important signal that the parties forming the coalition embrace the importance of investing in knowledge and are making a serious effort to do so. This step is crucial for the Netherlands to remain an innovative knowledge economy and for our strategic autonomy.’
The exact destination of the education investments is not yet entirely clear at this stage. However, there will definitely be structural investment in science and research, student welfare and reversing the cuts. Universities also welcome the investments in Lifelong Development (SZW), regional innovation campuses (EZ) and defence research.
Coalition focuses on international talent
A talent strategy will be introduced to ensure that the Netherlands attracts, trains and retains sufficient talent for the labour market and science. In addition, the coalition is scrapping the mandatory test for foreign-language education and wants to maintain the current range of foreign-language programmes. This means that the foreign-language bachelor's programmes in psychology, economics and business administration will not have to be converted to Dutch. The coalition has thus opted for a forward-looking and feasible approach to international talent and international science. Universities have recently demonstrated that they are taking responsibility for managing the influx of international students and strengthening the position of Dutch at university.
Van den Berg: ‘Universities will continue to take responsibility for balanced internationalisation, with targeted management of intake and continued attention to language skills and retention rates. In this way, we will ensure that internationalisation continues to contribute to education, research and the labour market in the future. In that light, we are pleased that this coalition agreement removes the need to convert the language of instruction for programmes.’
Defence budget for research
The coalition agreement allocates up to ten per cent of the defence budget to an innovation authority, through which the Ministry of Defence will finance research. Universities can make an essential contribution to the security and resilience of the Netherlands through their research and innovation, while taking into account knowledge security, ethics and academic freedom.
Source: Universiteiten van Nederland
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