Senate passes €1.2 billion in higher education cuts; Universities planning lawsuit

The Cabinet’s controversial education budget, with 1.2 billion euros in cuts to higher education and research, was approved on Tuesday by a majority of politicians serving in the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate. Within an hour, the association of Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) announced plans to file a lawsuit to get the courts to put a stop to at least some of the cutbacks.

The Eerste Kamer spent two days debating the plans presented by Minister Eppo Bruins, with senators raising doubts about the budget’s legal feasibility. The NSC minister said that his legal review team assured him that the budget would also remain intact if challenged in the courts.

The total budget amounts to 57 billion euros. Initially, the budget stated that 2 billion euros would be cut, but this was already reduced to 1.2 billion euros after debate in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Parliament. Of the cuts, the country’s knowledge institutes, higher education facilities, and researchers were hardest hit.

The left-wing parties in the Eerste Kamer voted against the budget, but there was sufficient support from coalition parties PVV, VVD and BBB and opposition parties CDA, JA21 and SGP. The fourth coalition party, NSC, is not represented in the upper house of Parliament as the party was formed after the last elections determined the current political composition of the Senate.

Universities will try to get some of the plans for cuts in higher education off the table via the courts. Their position is that the Cabinet cannot just cancel the agreements that the government made with the sector about starter and incentive grants in 2022. The case will be about a fee of around 300 million euros.

A so-called administrative agreement was reached in regards to the money, this agreement is valid until the end of 2030. "Many legal scholars question the legal viability of unilaterally breaking open the agreement. This will hinder any future agreements between universities and the government," said Caspar van den Berg, chairman of the umbrella organization Universities of the Netherlands (UNL).

Tilburg University, and the Radboud University in Nijmegen were the first schools to start the procedures, the UNL reported. At the time, "at the insistence of the minister", the universities quickly started allocating grants, the organization recalled.

At that time, the Rutte IV cabinet was still in power, and Robbert Dijkgraaf (D66) was the education minister. Now, Bruins is the minister. He called the cuts "painful", but is implementing them anyway.

There have been significant protests against the cuts. There was a strike at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam on Monday and another at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam on Tuesday. Tilburg University is scheduled to go on strike on Thursday.

“Don’t do it,” is the motto with the strikes. This message was also aimed towards the Senate, but they decided in favor of the cuts: the new education budget with 1.2 billion euros in cuts received a majority on Tuesday.

Ministerial budgets are rarely rejected by the Senate. The last time was in 1907. Nevertheless, the education sector had placed some hope in not only the left-wing bloc, but also the center and right-wing opposition parties in the Eerste Kamer. The FNV labor union’s education and research sector team said the cuts will have “disastrous effects” for higher education and society.

Student and organizations said they were very upset with the parties that helped the Cabinet secure a majority in the Senate for its education budget. “The future of our children and grandchildren is being cut. Instead of stopping that, deals were made. If those political parties really cared about our future, they would have voted against it,” said Abdelkader Karbache, the chair of national student union LSVb.

It is a “disastrous budget,” said Mylou Miché from the Interstedelijk Studenten Overleg, an organization representing students in all cities of the country. She said the cuts mean educational institutions “will have to cut back on the range of training courses, facilities and guidance, while we are facing major social challenges, such as the labor market shortage.”

Even though a proposed fine against students who take too long to graduate was pulled from the table, it is not enough to cover up for “too big a wound,” she said. National student association LAKS and higher vocational student organization JOBmbo also expressed displeasure.