FMG protest: ‘How can you guarantee the quality of education?’

Students and staff members of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences protested against faculty budget cuts with a playful campaign on Thursday. They brought mattresses and sleeping mats to building A on the Roeterseilandcampus and pretended to sleep there. The message: ‘Budget cuts put critical minds to sleep.’

After an hour, bystanders were invited to gather on the balcony to speak to the FMG dean Hans Brug. The activists stated that it was unfair that students were not informed about the cutbacks, and wanted to know how the FMG spent its money. Brug admitted that communication should have been better. He said that the faculty holds quality of education and research as a high priority and that it will try to maintain this quality.

The students asked how it was possible for the faculty to have invested in internationalisation without there being returns. Brug: ‘While we're welcoming more students, we will only receive the money in a few years. Meanwhile, the budget cut will be about 1.5 percent — not a huge amount.’ When the students wanted to know how they will be involved in the process, Brug pointed to the conversation they were having as a good example.

Brug pointed to the students in the Faculty Student Council (FSR). ‘I talk to them.’ Another student: ‘That's not true! We never see them!’ 

Brug will soon talk to the FSR about ways to make information more accessible to students, he says.