‘Most internationals are enrolled in programmes for which there is no labour shortage'

In January, you submitted a motion giving the higher education sector eight weeks to devise a plan to restrict English use. In your opinion, the use of that language has gone too far. Can you explain your position?
"The Higher Education Act says that Bachelor's programmes should primarily be taught in Dutch. After all, our universities are supposed to prepare you for life in Dutch society. The projects and internships you do in Dutch are part of that. But, if you do your Bachelor's programme entirely in English, you can’t follow any debates. 

Besides, students are currently divided across two worlds that don’t overlap much. Dutch students and international students don’t interact very much. They go to their own parties. If you want people to stay long term, you must ensure they feel connected to the Netherlands."

You have a background in Microbiology, a field that leans heavily on international cooperation and, therefore, the English language. How do you reconcile that with this attempt to reduce the use of the language?
"First of all, it’s important for academia to remain largely international. Your mind must be international, but your body must be Dutch. Besides, it’s not like we’re saying that English is evil and absolutely everything has to be in Dutch. Even if you switch a good chunk of the programmes back to Dutch, there will still be courses in English. But you don’t need to have everything in English to ensure your students speak the language properly."

Students are currently divided across two worlds that don’t overlap much

Why would it be an issue if STEM students didn’t speak Dutch? Do people in those fields really need to?
"English is the predominant language in the STEM sciences. However, in certain fields, Dutch is a more logical choice. Take Pharmacy or IT, for instance. We need Dutch-speaking researchers for those. Those students would be short-changing themselves by doing everything in English, although we also have to provide programmes in English in those fields because of a considerable labour shortage.

In addition, we underestimate how much of an obstacle English can be. For some, studying in English is their ticket to the rest of the world, while, for others, it’s a real stumbling block. The best students often study in English, but it can be a barrier for the less academically blessed."

Do such students even belong at research universities? Shouldn't they be at universities of applied sciences (HBO) or vocational education (MBO)?
"It’s not just about the students, it’s about the divide between them and the rest of society. Speaking the language of the country affords you more opportunities. If the entire university council only speaks English, that gap will only widen. Communicating in English only can also be a barrier for small and medium-sized business owners."

There aren’t enough Dutch lecturers to teach all these courses in Dutch. How should universities go about implementing these changes?
"First of all, the number of international students will go down. They currently make up 40 percent of the student body. The number of Dutch students will also go down in the long run, which means we’ll need fewer lecturers.

It should be noted that this is something we want to approach gradually. It’s a balancing act and we don’t want to wreck anything. International university lecturers will have enough time to ensure their Dutch skills are up to par. We want to organise programmes in such a way that we won’t have to get rid of anyone, and we will fill up the positions that international lecturers leave behind."

What do you think this should look like? Language courses are pretty intense and there often aren’t enough spots.
"It’s true we’ll be playing catch-up for a while, just like when many Dutch lecturers suddenly had to start teaching in English."

Science students short-change themselves by doing everything in English

International students from outside the EU pay institutional tuition fees, which means they bring in quite a lot of money for universities. The University of Groningen raked in 18.4 million euros more in institutional tuition fees than in statutory tuition fees, on a total budget of 900 million. At the same time, the upcoming government wants to cut nearly a billion euros from education. How can universities compensate for that?
"The funds that universities get from the government will decrease. The entire higher education sector has to find a way to make do with less. They are publicly financed institutions and they must take responsibility for that. One of their core tasks is contributing to Dutch society, as is attracting and training international students. But we simply have to find a balance.

The last government was able to make great investments in education. We maintained an important part of those, like the quality funds (Editor’s note: universities received additional funds to improve research and education after the basic grant was discontinued).

But some of the cutbacks will be painful. You have to consider them in the context of the immense investments that Rutte’s fourth term made. They have left us with the job of making cutbacks.

We’ll have to rearrange a few things to take the shrinkage into account and we’ll have slightly fewer students. Over the past few years, the number of international students has doubled. That’s less than beneficial to universities’ role in society and to the migration flow. But that’s okay: Groningen was a viable university even before 2016."

In 2021, Denmark tried to drastically limit English-language programmes, but, two years later, they found out that they really needed educated internationals in their labour market after all. So, they reverted their decision. Aren’t you worried something like that would happen in the Netherlands?
"No. We recently had a roundtable debate about Minister Dijkgraaf's internationalisation bill, the Internationalisation in Balance Act. One of the speakers was Lotte Jensen (Professor of Dutch at the Radboud University. She is of Danish descent, Ed.). She knows a lot about Denmark. 

She said that Denmark never went as far as the Netherlands when it came to internationalisation. Compared to Germany and Belgium, we have welcomed many more international students.

Besides, you have to be strategic about the exceptions you make for international students. We need more internationals for certain occupations, like engineers at ASML, Medicine, or the energy transition. But most internationals are currently enrolled in programmes where there aren’t any labour shortages, such as behavioural and social sciences or languages. Programmes  need to be smarter in that regard."

Rosanna Hertzberger. Photo: Tweedekamer.nl

It’s a balancing act and we don’t want to wreck anything

When it comes to cutting English-language programmes, universities already take the labour market into account, as well as the housing availability, and the region where they are located. Don’t you think all these exceptions will make them overshoot their mark? 
"Fortunately, it’s not like a single one of those criteria is enough to keep a programme in Dutch. You have to look at the whole picture. However, we do have to ask ourselves how many university colleges we need in this country. 

We must take into account the occupations for which there is a labour shortage, but we must also ensure that the truly big Bachelor's, like Psychology and Communication, go back to being taught in Dutch."

What if international students want to come here to study Psychology or Communication after all?
"They’re more than welcome, but we feel that most of our education should be in Dutch again. This means that, from now on, they’ll have to work on their Dutch language skills if they want to study here. It’s not a done deal yet, but my faction wants to ensure that everyone has enough time to at least finish their programme.

None of this is new, by the way. The Psychology programme in Maastricht used to be in Dutch and German students would simply learn the language. Science students may act like language is just a vehicle for information, but, in the end, it’s genuinely part of the culture."

International students are worried about their future because of all the parliamentarian debates. Do you understand their concerns? 
"First of all, I hold people who teach in the Netherlands in great esteem. We must hang on to them, so we can fill up positions in those fields where there is a labour shortage. 

At the same time, some of the things people say about the Internationalisation in Balance Act aren’t true. My neighbours, an international academic couple, sent me an article from universityworldnews.com that was particularly one-sided and polarising. One of its claims is that the new government came up with it, but that’s not true. Outgoing Minister of Education Robbert Dijkgraaf wrote it.

People being completely dependent on international news media is part of the problem. I think it’s important that every knowledge worker has access to quality journalism, so they can understand where this act comes from and what exactly happened in the Netherlands.

Additionally, the measures will be introduced gradually, not all at once. We want to give people a chance to get their Dutch proficiency up to scratch."

This article was previously published by UKrant, following a debate organised by the publication in association with Usva. The topic was: Will international students continue to be welcomed in Groningen?