Last week, at the closure of the academic year, we informed you by email about how we at UT intend to deal with the current issue of internationalisation in Dutch higher education. We have determined with which building blocks we want to shape our policy in this area. These building blocks are intended to clarify matters within our Faculties and to start a dialogue on how we want to deal with internationalisation in our organisation, thus anticipating any measures regarding the topic of internationalisation that are currently being prepared by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.
By now, it has undoubtedly not escaped your notice that the Dutch government resigned last week. This means that there will most likely be no new policy on crucial files and they will be declared controversial. Following the government’s resignation, certain legislative proposals and topics will not be dealt with by the Senate or the House of Representatives. New elections are likely to be held in November and after that, once a new government has been formed, these issues will be taken up again.
What this means for the topic of internationalisation is not known as yet. A draft bill is expected to be sent out for consultation – to universities as well – during or after the summer. All universities have now received a draft text that contains the direction in which the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science intends to take measures. Through the Universities of the Netherlands consortium (UNL) and 4TU Federation, we at UT will respond to this, the preparations for which are already in full swing.
Whether the draft bill will be open for public consultation is also unknown at this point. As soon as this happens, we will inform you about this. If this happens, it will be possible to send your own views on this matter to the Ministry.
In the meantime, we at UT will continue on the path we have chosen. This means that, after the summer, we will continue to translate the concept building blocks into starting points for UT policy, based on our own values, and in particular from our perspective on inclusion.
