All participation councils at Dutch universities signed the opinion piece and the letter to the minister of Education, Eppo Bruins.

On November 14, the protest against the announced cutbacks will take place in Utrecht, from 1 PM to about 3 PM. “We will gather at Moreelsepark and then march to Domplein for the protest,” says TU/e University Council member Martijn Klabbers (staff party), who will also be participating himself. Every TU/e employee or student who wants to participate will be allowed to do so. For students, only one condition applies: they shouldn’t have any exams or mandatory practical classes that day. Employees won’t have to take the day off. Transport won’t be reimbursed. More information is available on the intranet.

Beethoven

Klabbers realizes we’re relatively lucky in Eindhoven because of Project Beethoven. “This takes the pressure off a bit. For example, we haven’t discussed layoffs here yet, as opposed to other universities. Nevertheless, the cutbacks will also affect us and that’s not a good thing. I do appreciate what Executive Board president Robert-Jan Smits said the other day: ‘This is also the time to make clear what you want to focus on as a university,’ which is true of course.”

Klabbers also emphasizes cutbacks are actually not a new thing. “There’s been pressure on education for years and we have doubled our student numbers in the past 20 years, but the budget has remained virtually the same. Making even more cuts now will drive people away. And those who remain will have to absorb the even greater pressure.”

Extracurricular activities

University council student member Jeannique Wagenaar is worried about the extracurricular development of students with these cutbacks going on. “You do notice that there is fear among students about the cutbacks. You can already see that associations are having trouble filling their board seats, a trend since COVID. Being on a board requires putting your studies on hold, which costs money. Also, your commitment to student life or student welfare affects you personally because of the slow-progress penalty.”

Klabbers agrees. “Students who engage in extracurricular activities manifest themselves better in society. So there’s a broader interest at stake here. I think people underestimate the consequences of cutbacks in higher education and science. That is such a long-term effect and more difficult for people to imagine in concrete terms, also because it’s not included in the estimates by the Netherlands Institute for Social Research.”

Staying critical

We see more protests at universities with a lot of programs in the humanities and social sciences than here. People there seem to be more socially critical on all sorts of topics, or at least more vocal about it than at TU/e. Will many TU/e students nevertheless join the protest on Thursday? Wagenaar: “I think so. A slow-progress penalty is very concrete and has a real effect on the life of students. I think that will motivate them.” Klabbers laughs. “If we want to make students less critical, we should definitely go ahead with the cutbacks…”