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‘We don’t want a higher salary, we want to offer better education’
UvA professor Rens Bod argues it’s becoming tougher and tougher to guarantee quality in Dutch higher education. Now he’s calling on colleagues and students to send a message to the Dutch government.
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‘This is not about getting a higher salary. It’s about giving students their due,’ explains Bod, who is Professor of Digital Humanities at the UvA. ‘In recent years the amount of money available per student has decreased by 25 per cent while pressure on us to do our jobs has increased. Something has to go, and what I feel is suffering is the quality of education.’
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‘We have to make our voices heard: there has to be more money made available for higher education,’ says Bod. ‘It’s not just a problem for the humanities or the UvA. It’s a nationwide issue. That’s why we’re looking for partners in the whole country; among colleagues and students.’
Day of action
Bod hopes to organise a nationwide day of action. ‘We might go to the Malieveld in The Hague, or maybe we’ll strike. That would be unique in higher education. It almost never happens.’
At the earliest, Bod thinks the day of action could happen by the end of 2017. He has received a message of support from Geert ten Dam, President of the Board of the University, who told him she, ‘supports his initiative’.
