Universities to hire more lecturers, reduce class sizes

The bulk of the money saved by abolishing the basic study grant and introducing the loan system for students, will be used to hire more lecturers at universities and colleges. This would reduce the class sizes and give students a more personal, one on one experience. This is according to the strategic agenda for higher education that Minister Jet Bussemaker of Education will be presenting on Tuesday, sources told the Volkskrant. The introduction of the loan system will make 620 million euros available on the long term. More than half of this will be used to hire more lecturers. More than 4 thousand lecturers can be hired on this budget. "I want students to work in small groups and receive individual feedback from a lecturer", Bussemaker said in a recent interview with the Volkskrant. "That means that you need lecturers, and quite a lot." The VVD, PvdA, D66 and GroenLinks - the four political parties that came up with the loan system - from the beginning wanted to spend the budget on the quality of education. Bussemaker also wants to make it possible for a lecturer to make a career as a teacher at an university, and not only as a researcher. She is also investing money to stimulate development in university courses given online.