This is an article by the Higher Education Press Agency. They interviewed Barbara Oomen, chair of the Executive Board, on Thursday 27 March.
Will they soon be allowed to offer English-language study programmes or not? The government is leaving universities and colleges in border regions in limbo for too long, they tell education minister Bruins.
HZ, the university of applied sciences in Zeeland, has nine English-language study programmes. And it will probably stay that way, thinks college president Barbara Oomen, but she is not entirely sure. Will her study programmes pass the ‘test on foreign-language education’ announced by the government?
All foreign-language study programmes have to go through the mill, the cabinet has announced, but the test will be more lenient for universities and colleges near the German border and shrinking regions. The only question is how much more lenient. Minister Eppo Bruins gives double signals and sounds alternately strict and lenient.
It matters a lot to HZ, which is near the shrinkage region of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. Why can't he just scrap that language test for institutions like hers, Oomen wants to know from the minister. Together with University of Twente college president Vinod Subramaniam (who would not comment), among others, she tries to explain this in a conversation with Bruins.
‘On the one hand, we get an exception, on the other, we have to go through all the gates.’
You still don't know where you stand?
Oomen: ‘The minister actually says that regions like Zeeland, Friesland, Limburg, Groningen and Twente have nothing to worry about. He says to us: you can just keep attracting international students, because we know you have enough accommodation and that the business sector is eager for international talent. In the Senate, Zeeland was literally the example. But at the same time, he will soon force us to jump through all sorts of hoops. So on the one hand we get an exception, on the other hand we have to go through all the gates.’
What do you tell the minister?
‘If you want to exempt those regions, do so immediately. Now we are in uncertainty. In next year's budget, we have set aside money for an employee to guide nine study programmes through the foreign-language education test. We would rather spend that money on education.’
This conversation took place on Monday. What did it yield?
‘Very honestly: little new came out of it, except that the ministry heard our penetrating signal.’
Could that test now still be too strict for you guys?
‘We are confident that we will get that exception, and we have a good story here in Zeeland. But still we have to jump through all the hoops, and not only us. So must all study programmes across the country, including from regions like ours.’
How much effort can that test take?
‘Every study programme will soon have to go to the Higher Education Effectiveness Commission, which will carry out the test. That will soon receive the piles of paper with trolleys, because everyone wants to do this as well as possible. A lot depends on it. And then the minister can say that, for example, all English-language tourism study programmes can apply together, but that doesn't make it any easier: then you have to coordinate everything together and also explain the local situation.’
What would be the solution?
‘This cabinet wants to reduce the regulatory burden. Well, then I suggest we scrap the foreign-language education test for colleges and universities in the region. That will save a lot.’
The minister will say that he just wants to ‘balance’ internationalisation.
‘It is crazy anyway that he includes the hbo in his bill, because the hbo has only 8 per cent international students. If you look at it from a distance, you say: there is a problem with universities in the Randstad, there will be a change in the law and who suffers most? The colleges in the region. Problem and solution are disproportionate.’
‘Hello The Hague, if you want to help us, now is the time.’
You warned that foreign students will start avoiding your study programmes because of all the uncertainty. The number of provisional applications is said to be 30 per cent lower now than at this time last year.
‘I don't want to fixate on that percentage, because those are daily rates. It is also not only a problem at our college. Moreover, we have all kinds of challenges, not only that we are attracting fewer students. But we are a small college and cannot absorb these kinds of declines as easily as a big university in the Randstad. The same applies to our colleagues at University College Roosevelt in Middelburg. That is why we say: hello The Hague, if you want to help us, now is the time.’
Why should you explain that and not the Association of Colleges? There sometimes seems to be mutual disagreement in higher education in terms of support for the region.
‘The main story is that the entire hbo should be exempted from the Internationalisation in Balance Act, because 8 per cent international students is not the problem. That is also the line of the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences. This already applies wholeheartedly to the shrinkage regions, also according to the VH.’
What did the minister promise earlier?
The Dutch language must again become the norm in higher education, according to the cabinet. That is why minister Eppo Bruins wants all English-language bachelor's programmes to be assessed for their ‘added value’. If they fail the ‘test of foreign-language education’, they must switch to Dutch within a few years. In practice, that means they can no longer recruit international students.
This test will be more flexible for institutions near the language border and shrinking regions. For them, it becomes easier to demonstrate the usefulness and necessity of English-language education (and the arrival of internationals). These institutions wanted a commitment that they would pass the test anyway.
Bruins did not make that commitment. ‘In the shrinking and border regions, this added value is greater than elsewhere, but even there, steering remains desirable, especially given the high degree of Englishification at some institutions,’ the minister wrote to the Senate. ‘A completely uncontrolled supply of foreign-language education, also in the region, is not desirable.’