The election is over. The votes are counted. The country holds its breath again. The coalition talks have barely begun, but universities already feel the pause.
That is Dutch democracy. Careful. Polite. Measured to the millimeter. While The Hague negotiates, the rest of us also wait. But maybe we should not. Maybe it is time we start moving faster than coalitions can be formed. Dutch politics may move at glacial speed, but knowledge should not. Waiting is not a strategy. Not for a country. Not for our university.
I want to work at a university that stands for something. Not just against things. For too long we have gathered on the squares to say what we do not want: more cuts, more pressure, more bureaucracy. That mattered. But maybe it is time to say what we do want.
I cannot speak for everyone. But I can tell you what I want, and you can decide if that would be bad for our academic landscape.
I want a university that moves. That knows what it stands for. That does not hide behind committees or wait for policy signals from above. That leads. While politicians debate budgets, we can teach and research with purpose.
I want a university that looks forward. One that embraces new technologies and experiments with them. That accepts the risk of failure instead of banning tools out of fear. If AI destroys our students’ ability to think critically, is it not our job to teach them to think critically with it?
I want an academia that grows in the real sense. One that invests in curiosity, not compliance. That offers PhD students a future, not anxiety. At UM, too many PhD graduates still leave with a degree but no direction, while talented teachers struggle to find contracts that last beyond a year.
A university that builds real career paths for researchers and educators alike. Where “recognition and rewards” is more than a slogan in a glossy report. An academia that treats collaboration as success, that shares data, ideas, and credit, and listens before measuring.
Change will not come from The Hague. It will come from us, every student, teacher, researcher, and staff member who refuses to wait for permission, but who goes out and shouts out what we want. The university we want is not a plan. It starts now. This is why I will be out there protesting again. For the university.
Jonas Heller, assistant professor Marketing & director SBE DEXLab