Minister estimates ten thousand screenings a year

The government wants to improve the protection of sensitive knowledge by vetting students and staff from enrolling in certain programmes and disciplines. Those who steal information should be banned.

The security check will be carried out by Justis, a service by the Ministry of Justice and Security. But higher education institutions will also have work to do, said the Minister of Education, Eppo Bruins, on Thursday, while participating in a debate with the House of Representatives.

Technical universities will be particularly targeted. "I imagine that TU Delft has more sensitive technology than the Meertens Institute," Bruins said. Meertens is a research centre on language and culture.

"Max ten thousand"
Each time the minister talks about knowledge security, the number of people to be screened increases. First, he spoke of "a few thousand" and now he estimates that "ten thousand at most" will have to go through the screening each year.

The screening will be aimed at employees and aspiring Master's students who need access to "sensitive" knowledge. This includes knowledge that is of military interest, for example. However, the ministry has yet to define exactly what "sensitive" means.

Additional work
It will be up to universities themselves to keep a list of "sensitive knowledge" up to date. They will also have to ensure that the right applicants and prospective students go through Justis' screening process.

This will mean a considerable amount of work, especially at universities of technology, Bruins warned. The Parliament asked if universities would get more money to do this, but the answer was no. "I don't have any more money," Bruins replied. "This is a sad announcement, I know."

Russians and Chinese
More screenings are necessary than initially anticipated because of a piece of advice from the national lawyer, who recommended not to distinguish between Europeans and non-Europeans. Bruins took that advice to heart and announced that even Dutch citizens would soon have to be screened before studying sensitive technologies.

On Thursday, coalition party PVV briefly objected to the plans, asking if the discrimination ban meant that the Netherlands would soon be unable to keep Chinese students out. However, the government can make distinctions based on a “threat picture” painted by the security service. "That includes Russia, Iran and China," Bruins said. Justis will soon pay more attention to students or PhD candidates from those countries.

International students
Can universities cope with this task? Several parties asked about the plans' feasibility. 'The minister tried to nuance their concerns, saying that the cabinet wants to reduce the number of foreign students, which would save a lot of screenings. That is not a nice joke, but I thought: 'Oh yeah, this is true!"

The latter remains to be seen, by the way: the law Bruins wants to use to curb the influx of foreign students is only about Bachelor's students, while the upcoming screening law only affects master students (in addition to employees).

No money
Universities are also concerned about the feasibility and cost of the screenings. "It is ludicrous that the government does not provide funding for it,’" says a spokesperson for the Association of Dutch Universities, UNL. 

Will institutions soon have to deal with huge piles of applications, making application procedures longer? UNL fears that applicants will soon be more inclined to choose countries without screening. However, according to Bruins, other EU countries are carrying out similar security measures.

The bill should be finished within a few months. Initially, the ministry expected the law to become effective in 2028, but he now hopes Justis will start the first security checks as early as ‘mid-2027’.