Headlines

According to the latest figures published by the CentralStatistics Agency (CBS), as of December 1, 1999 there are more than32,000 first-year students enrolled in Dutch institutions of higherlearning. Utrecht, with its 4,139 first-year students, chalked up a13 percent increase. Nationally, numbers are up more than fivepercent. The number of first-year university students has risen byfour to five percent since 1996. However, the loss in studentnumbers before 1996 has not been regained yet; in 1990 there was arecord number of first-year students, 36,000 in all. Only Leidenand Wageningen have lost ground, experiencing decreases of five andseven percent respectively. For the first time there are morefemale than male first-year students, however men make up 53percent of the entire student body.

Damage

A training camp in Tilburg held at the beginning of the rowingseason ended in disaster for Utrecht rowing clubs Orka and Triton.The boat trailer owned by Theta, their sister rowing club inTilburg, which was carrying their skiffs, was involved in anaccident on Friday evening. Nine of Triton's and six of Orka'sboats were seriously damaged, some are a total loss. The firstcautious estimates of the damage were made on Monday. Triton'slosses amount to between 50 and 100 thousand guilders and Orka'sbetween 65 and 80 thousand guilders.

Protests

Ten students disrupted the debate in the Lower House ofParliament on Monday with a 'relay speech', each taking turnsreading parts of a declaration. Afterwards they were escorted fromthe room. The Lower House was discussing the Higher Education andResearch Plan, in which Hermans (minister for education) has setout his vision of the future of higher education. According to theprotesters, the minister does not focus enough attention onstudents, who have very little say and pay high costs for theirstudies. Before the protest began, the Lower House had asked theminister to devote extra attention to students. The House believesthat if universities are to be given more freedom (as Hermansproposes), the legal position of students must be adapted. Everyuniversity should have an independent ombudsman for students.