Unsustainable

‘This is now financially unsustainable,’ Van den Boom said. She reminded her public of the fact that, in 2006, an advisory committee to the minister for education had already advised universities to invest a further 1 billion euros if they wanted to be able to sustain the quality of higher education in spite of the pressures of a growing student population.

The plea was repeated by another advisory committee in 2010. The investment finally ‘came out of the universities’ own pockets’ in 2012, Van den Boom recalled. A collective of Dutch higher education and research organisations, the Dutch National Research Agenda, has recently called for an extra 1 billion euros investment.

Van den Boom made what she called some ‘daring proposals’ to prepare the universities for the future. One of them was to introduce entry requirements, a topic that has been debated in the Netherland since 1997. ‘I think we should not hesitate to discuss selection at entry as a potential solution’ Van den Boom said.

Democracy

Van den Boom’s successor Karen Maex did not address the issue in the speech she gave after Van den Boom’s, and the president of UvA’s Board of Directors, Geert ten Dam, is known not to be in favour of entry requirements. In September she said that selection efforts at entry would cause a ‘democratic deficit’ in society. Instead, universities and secondary schools should make an effort to create a more ‘inclusive’ education programme.