These additional cuts are unwelcome news that further exacerbates our savings targets and the concerns of students and staff. Before the summer, the outgoing cabinet endorsed a European standard of spending three per cent of gross domestic product on research and innovation. However, these additional cuts will reduce this figure to below two per cent.
‘The cuts are drastic for our university and disastrous for the Dutch economy. Universities are expected to come up with solutions to social challenges, to be at the forefront of developing innovations and to train professionals for this. This is being thwarted by the actions of the outgoing cabinet; universities are being forced to cut back on their education and research themes,' says University President Alexandra van Huffelen. ‘It is possible that a new cabinet after the elections will dare to invest in higher education, as most party programmes advocate this, but we cannot wait for this disastrous decision to be reversed. That is why I call on everyone to make their voice heard.’
Conversation WOinActie
On 23 September, the executive board will meet with WOinActie to discuss ways of making our objections clear to politicians in The Hague. You will be informed of the outcome. The executive board calls on everyone to contribute ideas and join in with actions.
Lawsuit
Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) is bringing a lawsuit against the Dutch state on behalf of all universities for breaking the Administrative Agreement. The Administrative Agreement stipulates that the national government would make €300 million per year available for start-up and incentive grants. At the minister's insistence, universities quickly began allocating these grants. The minister led the universities to expect that they would be reimbursed for this. Now that this is not happening, the universities are taking legal action.