Humanities cuts ‘harbinger’ of bleak future for Dutch sector

The proposed closure of multiple undergraduate humanities programmes at Leiden University is a “harbinger” of a troubled future across the Netherlands, sector leaders have warned.

Leiden is one of several Dutch universities grappling with significant deficits, with times expected to get tougher should the country’s right-wing coalition government pass drastic budget cuts and restrictions on English-language teaching.

According to the Leiden board, bachelor’s programmes in African studies and Latin American studies are at risk of being scrapped in their entirety. The institution is considering merging undergraduate degrees in Korean, Chinese, Japanese and South and South-east Asian studies into an “Asian studies” BA, while French, German and Italian language and culture bachelor’s programmes may be combined into a single “European languages and cultures” BA. In the Middle Eastern studies programmes, degree specialisations – including Arabic, Islamic studies, Turkish, Hebrew, Persian and modern Middle Eastern studies – may also be “reduced”.

“I am afraid that the situation we see at Leiden University is a harbinger of what we are going to see more of,” said Ruben Puylaert, spokesperson for the umbrella group Universities of the Netherlands (UNL).

Shortly after news broke of the Leiden course cuts, Utrecht University announced that it would close six bachelor’s programmes by 2030, halting intakes for the French, German, Islam and Arabic, Celtic, Italian and religious studies courses from September 2026.

Mirjam de Bruijn, Leiden’s professor of contemporary history and anthropology of Africa, told Times Higher Education that the Faculty of Humanities needed to cut its budget by €5.6 million (£4.7 million). The proposed course closures, she said, would be “a great loss of diversity for the university and faculty”. Leiden’s African studies BA, Professor De Bruijn said, was “unique in Europe” and the only such course to be taught entirely in English.

Several Leiden academics raised concerns about the plans to merge multiple undergraduate degrees. One researcher in Asian studies, who asked to remain anonymous, commented: “Asia is 60 per cent of the world’s population. You can’t cram that into one course.”

Aone van Engelenhoven, an assistant professor of South-east Asian linguistics, said treating the university as “more a factory than a place of science” could result in the irreversible loss of expertise in some disciplines. “When it’s gone, it’s gone forever,” he said.

Korean studies professor Remco Breuker said job losses were inevitable if his faculty was required to cut costs. While he was “fairly confident” that the popular Korean studies department would survive the cutbacks implemented by Leiden, he anticipated an “apocalypse” if the proposed national budget for 2025 and the “internationalisation in balance” bill passed in their current forms.

How humanities and social sciences PhD programmes can adapt to a challenging job landscape

“The [national] budget cuts are going to hit universities across the board, so in all areas of sciences,” UNL’s Mr Puylaert said. “However, it does seem that the humanities will be hit extra hard by the [proposed] internationalisation act.”

Facing the possible loss of the Latin American studies undergraduate degree, Patricio Silva, professor of modern Latin American history, said his department was working on a proposal to restructure the programme, which would involve the elimination of disciplinary tracks, among other measures.

“We’re adapting it to the new financial constraints to show our ability to cooperate,” he said. “I am hopeful that the modified programme will bring the authorities to reconsider the original plan to shut down our undergraduate degree.”

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com