The Dutch government asks Germany to pay for its students studying in the Netherlands. There are 24,000 in the universities of the Netherlands and their number is increasing by 14% per year.
The Netherlands is home to too many foreign students, especially of German origin, says state secretary for education Abe Zijlstra. In a letter to the parliament, he admonishes universities that are too lax about the "German invasion" and proposes to share the cost of studies with the German border-landers, most of whose students are from.
As a backdrop, the Europe of knowledge is being challenged, in the Netherlands as elsewhere, particularly in France. In 1999, the "Bologna Conference" launched a process of harmonization of educational levels and diplomas for a "European Higher Education Area". The European institutions initiate in the process international exchange programs - Erasmus, Leonardo, etc. - intended to stimulate student mobility. But 13 years later, crisis requires, mobility has lead in the wing is that the reception of foreign students weighs on national budgets.
A few years ago, it was Belgium that was trying to stop the number of French students enrolled in veterinary schools. It must be said that in Liège, they accounted for 86% of registered.
The French Community of Belgium, the competent authority for cultural matters and higher education in the French-speaking part of the country, had set up a threshold of 30% of eligible foreign students in the Belgian faculties, no more. But the FEF, the Federation of French-speaking Students, had lodged a complaint with the Court of Arbitration (body that verifies the constitutionality of the laws in Belgium, Ed).
It was the beginning of a great saga that would continue even before the European Commission for "violation of articles 149 and 150 of the Treaty establishing the European Union".
It's the turn of the Netherlands to go to war. It had been felt for some months that the subject was brooding under the ashes. It was first the right wing that seized it, with an editorial on "the cosmopolitan ideal" in the right-wing magazine Elsevier. Exaggerated figures in support: 42,500 foreign students. And an average cost per student of 6,000 euros. The total slate would exceed 240 million euros, according to the magazine.
And then, the inevitable PVV Geert Wilders took the opportunity to brandish, once again, his xenophobic flag. Populist parliamentarian Eric Lucassen asked Education Minister Heins Piet Donner what he planned to do to stop the invasion. Meanwhile, the figures had swelled, since Lucassen had no less than 82,000 foreign students in the Netherlands!
What the PVV's racist policy could not do, the economic policy of its liberal ally, the VVD, was going to provide. The government is trying to achieve some 23 billion euros in savings. Since the 18 billion official figures already calculated in the "Million Note" (presentation of the annual budget), Minister Hans Kees of Jaeger announced a "te kort" (deficit) budget of 5 new billions.
Christmas gift: removal of scholarships
The government first attacked social budgets, including aid to dependents, and then turned to students. "The Dutch first," the motto would surely please Marine Le Pen. On 29 December, the right-wing newspaper Algemene Dagblad announces that, for their new year, the government will offer students a scholarship cancellation! They will now have to finance their education through loans granted by the public authorities. Loans will be repaid at the end of their studies.
In addition, free transportation of students by train would be eliminated and replaced by a discount card. The two cumulative measures are expected to bring in some 800 million euros ... To get students used to the new controls, the NS (Nederlandsche Spoorwegen, Dutch railway company, Ed) broadcast several times an hour audio messages ordering them to scan their pass - always free so far - every trip ...
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