Van Rijn advice hits UG hard

The advice from the Van Rijn committee concerning the funding of higher education has heavy consequences for the UG as a broad-based classical university. The proposed redistribution of funds in favour of technical sciences is at the expense of degree programmes in the humanities, social sciences and medicine. The appendix of the report shows that UG funding would be structurally reduced by around € 9 million net per year.

According to Rector Magnificus Elmer Sterken, the committee’s advice in the short term is not a solution to the problems that the entire education sector has experienced for years, such as high work pressure and the lagging funding per student. "If the committee’s advice would be followed word for word at the UG, this would lead to a dramatic internal redistribution of funding between faculties from 2020 onwards. If the committee’s advice is followed, the UG calls on the Minister of Education to make extra funds available to compensate for the damage that the proposed measures would cause."