New offensive against English-language education
Universities should immediately resume teaching in Dutch, believes Beter Onderwijs Nederland. With 19 open letters to ministers, administrators and supervisors, the association begins a new offensive.
"Yes, this is the kickoff of another campaign," affirms philosopher Ad Verbrugge, president of Beter Onderwijs Nederland. For years, his association has waged a fierce battle against the anglicization of higher education.
According to BON, English-language education has all kinds of disadvantages, such as for graduates on the Dutch labor market. Also, Dutch subjects are not covered well in English-language courses, "which leads to the deterioration of content and a greater distance of the university from the rest of society," according to a statement.
The action group points to the law, which states that higher education must promote the Dutch-language "expressive skills" of Dutch students. Another article states that education and exams—with exceptions—must be given in Dutch.
Explanation
But those legal exceptions have been used by universities to offer more and more English-language education and recruit international students. The BON action group regards this with dismay.
The Education Inspectorate found in 2019 that programs were not properly complying with the law. Not all of them could explain why their education had to be in the English language, but there were no consequences.
"The process continues on merrily," Verbrugge sneered. "We pointed out its downsides many years ago. It seems as if these hardly play a role for administrators and government officials, while by now it is clear that our predictions have come true. The situation at some institutions is untenable. Even someone like College President Geert ten Dam of the University of Amsterdam is calling for action."
In his view, the solution is simple: "We need to enforce the current law. For starters, let's make sure that every undergraduate program offers at least 60 percent of its courses in Dutch. It is crazy that everyone is now saying that the situation has become untenable and that the government must come up with legislation. The law is right there."
Not fast enough
The previous minister, Ingrid van Engelshoven, piloted a bill through the house of representatives that would strengthen the position of Dutch in higher education and make the influx of foreign students more manageable. But after the fall of the cabinet, that proposal stalled at the senate. Minister Dijkgraaf has since withdrawn it and is working on his own proposal, but BON feels it is not moving fast enough.
BON kept quiet for a while. Verbrugge says: "We saw that inspection report and hoped that action would follow. That didn't happen. Meanwhile, the corona crisis broke out and there were new elections. Our hopes were pinned on Minister Dijkgraaf, but he didn't budge. For that reason, we want to bring the issue people's attention again and show: this is actually not possible."
According to Verbrugge, ministers and administrators do not want to read what the law says, nor do they take the background of the law's provisions on the language of instruction seriously. "Legally speaking, the anglicization of education is extremely dubious, if not to say illegal."
