English-language teaching under pressure ahead of Dutch election

The launch of a new political party by one of the staunchest critics of English use in the Netherlands’ universities has heightened concerns about a crackdown, although hope remains for a compromise.

The Netherlands will go to the polls on 22 November after Mark Rutte’s coalition split over caps on the reunification of refugee families. Among those fighting to replace it will be the New Social Contract party, launched by MP Pieter Omtzigt on 20 August.

Dr Omtzigt, an independent conservative with a PhD in economics from the European University Institute and a brief postdoc career in Italy and Amsterdam, has said the new party will build on his position that the Netherlands must teach in Dutch, eliminating English-only degrees.

“He’s been very, very extreme in his positions in terms of Dutch education,” Marcel Hanegraaff, a political scientist at the University of Amsterdam and chair of the Dutch Circle for the Science of Politics, told Times Higher Education.

Most members of the current parliament backed a motion by Dr Omtzigt that Dutch should be the main language of instruction, although there was wide support for a milder proposal by outgoing education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf, that only a third of any degree programme could be taught in a language other than Dutch.

Even the one-third proposal threatens upheaval for Professor Hanegraaff’s programme, 90 per cent of which is taught in English. “It already creates anxiety and uncertainty among many of our staff, which is really unfortunate,” he said.

“All political parties and the minister now take as the starting point that in principle the language for a bachelor’s level programme should be Dutch unless a well-argued exception can be made,” said Ben Jongbloed, an associate professor at the Centre for Higher Education Policy at the University of Twente. “The plan is that exceptions to the rule should actually be exceptions, rather than the norm.”

Dr Omtzigt has argued that it is unfair for Dutch taxpayers to pay for international students’ tuition, because they tend to return home afterwards. European Union law prevents universities from discriminating between domestic and other EU applicants, leaving language as the best lever.

Experiences in Denmark and Belgium suggest that mandating local language teaching does curb international intakes, but it is a heavy weapon that would hit programmes even sceptics want to attract international talent, such as engineering and business.

David Schindler, an associate professor of economics at Tilburg University, said his department’s almost entirely English-taught curricula were a major advantage when recruiting staff from elsewhere in Europe, and that mandating Dutch-language teaching would “wreck the entire academic system”.

While he accepted that international intakes did put pressure on scarce housing stock, he disputed Dr Omtzigt’s claim that they were a drain on Dutch finances, citing a 2019 independent economic study that found each EU student generated up to €17,000 (£14,500) and each non-EU student €94,000 for the Dutch economy.

One July poll estimated a party led by Dr Omtzigt could win 46 seats, giving his ideas an influential position in the next government, but Professor Hanegraaff said he was hopeful that New Social Contract would soften its position as it recruited candidates or made it into coalition talks.

“I don’t think he’ll hold on to that position because there are studies for which we clearly need foreign students,” he said. “The Dutch labour market would collapse if we wouldn’t have foreign students for these kinds of studies.”

ben.upton@timeshighereducation.com