The cabinet still wants to cut almost a billion euros from higher education and science. “That will definitely hurt,” Letschert says, “we just don't know yet where the blows will fall. We are also worried about the measures that will result from the ‘internationalisation in balance’ bill.” This concerns the possible restriction of the intake of foreign students and a reduction in the number of English-language programmes. “What does the sum of all these financial effects mean? I can’t make any statements now about possible redundancies, it’s too early for that.”
Sector plans
The sector plans – joint projects of universities on research and education, good for 1,200 jobs nationwide – remain in place. All Maastricht University faculties participate in them: think of research themes ranging from the human factor in new technologies, mental disorders, to sustainable food systems and globalisation. The faculties receive extra research funds for this from the government. At the Faculty of Law, this amounts to about €600,000 a year and the Faculty of Science and Engineering gets €1.4 million a year. That is less than, for example, the psychologists (about €1.8 million), Arts and Social Sciences (about €2.3 million), and the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences together with the hospital (about €5 million). This money was used to hire academic and support staff, convert temporary contracts into permanent jobs, and promote assistant professors to associate professors.
Starter’s grants
The new Minister of Education, Eppo Bruins, is now going to cut starter’s and incentive grants as compensation. These were meant to make researchers less dependent on competition at research funder NWO. At stake is €300 million a year nationwide. More than half was intended for starter’s grants (up to €300,000 each, but half was also possible) for staff members recently promoted to assistant professor. The other €144 million was earmarked for incentive grants for other scientific staff. Maastricht University will receive around €22 million for starter’s grants and €10 million for incentive grants in 2024. The scholarships awarded in 2023 and this year, have been or will still be paid out, says Letschert.
Government programme
The new cabinet will present its coalition programme on Friday, which will detail various plans. Either way, Bruins will deviate from the coalition agreement, in which the sector plans were explicitly mentioned. The question is how the coalition parties will react. They can probably live with it, now that the cutback remains intact.
Blow
The blow for universities remains the same, though, tweets Caspar van den Berg, president of the society of universities UNL. “We had hoped for and counted on real relief. This is shifting, not solving.”
Riki Janssen/HOP