Han van der Maas | The ban on English in bachelors is far more disastrous than the cuts
The ban on English in higher education is way worse than the cuts, writes columnist Han van der Maas. “It throws us back decades, causes massive reorganisations and puts the economic development of the Netherlands at great risk.”
English, please. That’s what should have been on my sign during the heartwarming demonstration in The Hague, but I’m still getting used to slogans and chants. English, please, because the destruction of internationalization is the least mentioned when it comes to our concerns about this government policy. The long-study fine, the billion-dollar cuts to universities and the NWO cuts are very serious, but the ban on English in the bachelor’s degree goes far beyond these cuts. It throws us back decades, causes massive reorganisations and puts the economic development of the Netherlands at great risk.
Thanks to English as a research and teaching language, the tiny Netherlands is a top scientific country. We obtain twice as many ERC grants as Europe’s number two. International students and staff are an enormous enrichment, culturally and economically. They are desperately needed to meet the increasing shortages in the labor market. Our programs are among the world’s best. Thanks to large international programs, universities can keep smaller programs afloat. Thanks to the international intake, Dutch students have access to a rich variety of great programs.
In particular, the PVV and NSC want to put an end to this. The just-resigned NSC MP Hertzberger even wanted to ban English in the master’s degree. The NSC will not go down without dragging the Dutch academy down with it. NSC cites two reasons for banning English in education. The first is the supposedly out-of-control internationalization that costs us hands full of money, leads to overcrowded lecture halls and excessive work pressure.
The ban on English is mainly a means to greatly reduce the influx of foreign students. Those enormous costs Omtzigt keeps talking about are an investment that, according to any analysis, will more than pay for itself. Those who talk about overcrowded lecture halls missed the fact that attendance at lectures has been below par for years. And crying along about workload is not credible for a party whose own minister is implementing these record budget cuts.
It’s not that we don’t recognize the side effects of internationalization. Universities have been asking for years for (selection) tools to manage the European influx, in particular. The bureaucratic response is always that Brussels doesn’t allow it. But why is it that successive governments manage to arrange leniency for fishermen and farmers on issues where we are the worst in the class, yet fail to do so for European higher education, where we are clearly the best in the class? Has this even been attempted? Has Eppo ever been to Brussels?
The second reason is absurd. They want Dutch to once again become the language of science and academic education. They are blind to the enormous advantages English offers our small country. Amid all the complaints about language skills and language education, it is never mentioned that the Dutch rank number one in proficiency in English as a second language. We can lament the disappearance of languages and the growing dominance of English, but that’s like complaining about the weather.
It is also remarkable that Omtzigt himself completed a bachelor’s degree in Exeter, spent an Erasmus year in Rome, and completed his PhD in Florence. All in English—and with delays.
