Education, particularly higher education in the Netherlands, is facing historic budget cuts following the current government’s budgetary plans. Out of a total of more than 2 billion euros in cuts on education, just over 1 billion euros was taken from the higher education budget through the scrapping of various funds and programs, reducing the budget of the Dutch Research Council, decreasing the number of international students, and imposing a tuition fine on study delays.
Since the summer, PNN has joined a coalition of unions, interest groups, and other higher education organizations in speaking out against these budget cuts. After months of organizing, protesting, and spreading awareness of the budget cuts, 25.000 students and staff of higher education institutions made themselves heard by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in a march through the streets of the Hague.
The government has been in negotiations with a group of opposition parties which resulted in a deal last week. The deal reduces the 2 billion euro cuts on the total education budget by roughly 750 million euros, with the majority of the reductions going toward fundamental education. It also somewhat softens the cuts on higher education, such as limiting the reduction of international students and scrapping the tuition fine on study delays.
Overall however, there are still significant cuts headed for higher education, which the coalition of unions and other interest groups are not willing to accept. Right now, they are preparing for a potential strike in the beginning of 2025. Whether a strike will happen depends on the willingness of union members to strike, and whether any improvement of the higher education budget happens in the meantime.
PNN will likely not be a part of this strike, but PhD-candidates could still be affected by it. If you have any questions about the budget cuts or a potential strike, or want to share how the budget cuts have affected PhD candidates at your institution, please reach out to universities@hetpnn.nl.
