Cuts looming: how will they affect the Amsterdam Law School?

Published on 08-11-2024 10:00

The new cabinet is going to make significant cuts to higher education. What does that mean for the UvA and the Amsterdam Law School? Our dean, Mireille van Eechoud, explains in advance. ‘It is slowly becoming clearer exactly what and how the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science will cut back on, so we are getting a better idea of what this means for us.’

‘The Cabinet’s plans directly impact the Amsterdam Law School’s income in the coming years,’ explains Mireille van Eechoud. ‘This is largely on the research side, but education and research are closely related. We are calculating the long-term effects and identifying possible measures to absorb the cuts.’

Which cuts are involved?

‘There are cuts on many fronts. Think of the announced long-study fine for students and the ending of the start-up and incentive grants for young researchers. The government has also long wanted Bachelor’s programmes to be offered in Dutch as much as possible. This aims to reduce the number of international Bachelor’s students. A bill makes it compulsory for all foreign-language, usually English-language, Bachelor’s programmes to pass a test to show that offering the programme in English is essential. Together with the faculties of Social and Behavioural Scienes and Economics and Business, we offer PPLE, Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics. That is a wonderful programme for which we can also do a good job justifying why it is taught in English.’

What exactly does the long-study fine entail?

‘The Schoof Cabinet’s outline agreement states that tuition fees will be increased by 3,000 euros for full-time students who miss out on more than 1 year in the Bachelor’s or Master’s phase. The Cabinet wants to introduce the long-study penalty from the academic year 2026-2027. Fortunately, some exceptions have already been formulated for delayed students due to personal circumstances, such as illness or informal care, top-level sports or board work.’

What are the implications for international students?

‘In the coming months, it will become clear how the cut in international education will be implemented. The Balanced Internationalisation bill proposal is still before the House of Representatives. The language test included is only aimed at undergraduate programmes and will not affect our 2 Dutch-language undergraduate programmes. Exchange students remain welcome. We have an excellent range of Master’s programmes in the Dutch and English languages. There are no plans to change this because we have looked at what we offer in recent years and made all kinds of programme improvements. The English-language Master’s programmes run well and attract a nice mix of students from the Netherlands, Europe and partly from the rest of the world. We want to keep it that way.'

Are there any rays of hope?

‘The first results of the revamped Bachelor's programmes in Law and Tax Law show that students study more successfully. That means more tuition fees. We also continue to see healthy growth in the intake of both Bachelor’s and Master’s students this year, especially in the Dutch-language programmes.’

National protest march

Staff and students show that things should be different. For instance, there will be a national protest march in Utrecht on 14 November. It would be good if we participated in it in large numbers. The UvA offers space for that.

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