Dutch voters don’t want budget cuts to science

The government has announced budget cuts of more than one billion euros in higher education and scientific research, against the wishes of 69 percent of Dutch voters. Not only those who voted for opposition parties are against the budget cuts: 62 percent of those who voted for the parties in the coalition (PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB) oppose the plan as well.

These figures, published by research agency Dynata, are based on an online survey commissioned by the association of Dutch universities, UNL. The survey reached a thousand respondents.

86 percent of Dutch voters believe that universities and scientific research are important. The survey also showed that 76 percent of those who voted for one of the cabinet parties believe that enough money should be allocated for universities and scientific research. More than half of them said they would want the sector to have enough money even if this meant less money for other things. Universities of applied sciences were not included in the survey.

"Heed this signal"
“Dutch voters regard the cuts as a threat to research into important topics, such as new medicines and counter-terrorism”, said UNL president Caspar van den Berg at the opening of the academic year. “The coalition parties in the Parliament have no choice but to heed this signal from their constituents.” 

After calling the austerity plans “very unwise and harmful for the future of the Netherlands”, Van den Berg noted: “The coalition parties say productivity growth and future earning power are their priorities. If that’s true, such extreme budget cuts to the Dutch knowledge sector are all the more incomprehensible.”

In addition to chairing UNL, Van den Berg is a senator for VVD, one of the parties in the cabinet. He is one of the authors of the party’s election manifesto. Hoping to stop some of the cuts, he has announced legal action.