Han van der Maas | Let us strike!
A catastrophe is looming if the plans around limiting internationalisation, as articulated by Geert Wilders and Pieter Omtzigt, become reality, columnist Han van der Maas argues. “If Dutch becomes the main language in our education system, an exodus of students and staff will follow, accompanied by years of reorganizations in which an estimated 1 in 5 employees will lose their jobs.”
It is hard to decide what is worse, the cheering in Moscow after Wilders’ victory, the open racism that ‘real’ Dutch people are no longer ashamed of, the anti-climate rhetoric, or the disdain for the arts and culture sector. But thanks to Rutte’s latest and biggest mistake, the fall of his cabinet, the Netherlands has become a country where the gut rules. Although the center-right is suddenly having second thoughts.
It now appears that the only thing the three would-be governing parties share is an aversion to foreigners, especially asylum seekers. This is not only a sad but also a rather narrow basis for future government policy. And even if we manage to halve the number of asylum seekers, for example, this will not suddenly solve the housing shortage or the nitrogen crisis. Moreover, the right-wing populist government in Italy was unable to achieve such a reduction in immigration. If the Wilders government stops the military aid to Ukraine, which Wilders wants very much, and the Russians break through the Ukrainian lines, an influx of refugees of a completely different magnitude will follow. The current increase is already largely due to the Ukrainian influx.
Old Frisian skates
The populist aversion to foreigners is now also affecting academics, thanks to Pieter Omtzigt, who has led the charge against the internationalization of higher education. One would expect more from the man who denounced the populism-inspired benefits affair (“the Bulgarians fraud”).
Politicians have come up with an idiotic way to chase away our international students. A majority of the parties want to force us to teach and do science in Dutch. That’s skating on old Frisian skates. It is precisely because of our choice of English as the language of science that the Netherlands has become one of the world's most important centers of knowledge. Our research is of a remarkably high standard, as evidenced by analyses of citations and European funding. Our education, including our doctoral system, is of international excellence. The economic impact of this is enormous, enriching Dutch culture and helping us to cope with labor market shortages that will increase sharply as the population ages.
Universities are well able to regulate admissions with an improved numerus fixus system. There is no evidence of a displacement of Dutch students. In fact, it is precisely because of foreign students that Dutch students can choose from a very wide range of good programs. Without foreigners, the supply of educational programs would be significantly impoverished (in Dutch). Only the housing shortage is a problem, but this is only partly due to the increase in foreign staff and students.
Catastrophe
Now a catastrophe is looming. If Dutch becomes the language of instruction in our education system, an exodus of students and staff will follow, accompanied by years of reorganization in which an estimated one in five employees will lose their jobs. Thousands of jobs will be at stake. The Netherlands will lose its top position as a country of knowledge and slip back to the mediocre level of a few decades ago, when we still pretended that Dutch was a language of science.
We can learn from the Dutch farmers. It is time for action, for protests and strikes. This imminent destruction of our academy, a pillar of our prosperity, culture and democracy, must be fought. We do it for ourselves, fortunately, because then we also belong to the people. But we also do it for our wonderful international students who have enriched our education, some of whom stay in the Netherlands, and for all the international staff who have left home and hearth to contribute to our education and research in our rain-soaked little country for modest salaries. We also do it for science and the university, the lifeline in times of economic chaos, polarization and climate crisis.
Let us strike!
Han van der Maas is full professor of Psychological Methods and columnist of Folia.
