That is what Minister Bruins had to say on April 23rd during a parliamentary committee meeting on higher education.
The statement was prompted by a joint call from all universities to scrap the language test from the bill. According to Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), the test is ‘infeasible’ and would result in the closure of many English-taught programmes.
In exchange for scrapping the language test, the institutions presented a counter-proposal last week to help balance internationalisation in higher education. For instance, they want to give the Dutch language a more prominent role in programmes and impose intake restrictions on the English-taught versions of certain programmes. In addition, the universities, including Leiden, are abolishing their English-taught bachelor’s programmes in Psychology.
In an interview with Mare, Leiden Board president Annetje Ottow and vice president Timo Kos said that the universities and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science believe this counter-offensive ‘has a good chance of success’, that the universities are not open to negotiation on this matter and that Leiden will only abolish the English-taught track in Psychology ‘if the language test for existing programmes is taken off the table’.
Nevertheless, Education Minister Bruins said during the committee meeting that he is not yet on board. Although he describes the universities’ ‘self-regulation’ as ‘a historic moment’ and ‘a big step’, he is still unwilling to scrap the language test from the WIB for now. ‘The universities informed me of this condition through the press’, said Bruins.
‘Suddenly dropping that test at this point would effectively require me to reconsider the objectives of the bill. That would mean surrendering my means to exert any form of control over the objectives that the Lower House and several ministers have been talking about for over a decade.’
Bruins believes that scrapping the language test ‘requires thorough consideration, more than I can offer you right now’. He did say he is in talks with UNL about this.
‘I’m hearing a lot of praise but I see little concrete action’, responded GroenLinks/PvdA MP Luc Stultiens. ‘The universities made one firm demand: scrap that bureaucratic language test. That’s a very reasonable demand. That’s why I'm calling on the minister to be open to listening to the people in the field who have been working on this for months, because otherwise, this will probably be the last time they’re prepared to stick their necks out themselves. I hope the minister is willing to meet this demand and adopt a more open attitude.’
‘That open attitude is there’, Bruins responded. ‘As we speak, the universities are at the table with their participation bodies because of these plans. I realise this is a historic step, and my open attitude reflects that. But I’m not going to agree to what the universities are asking of me during this debate.’
The minister did promise to present a memorandum of amendment before the summer. ‘That will include my response.’ He felt the response should not be long in coming ‘now that universities have placed themselves in such a vulnerable position’ and are calling for certainty and stability.
Leiden University spokesperson Caroline van Overbeeke says it is ‘far too early’ for a substantive response. ‘We haven’t received any written confirmation from the minister stating that the language test is not off the table. So we’re waiting for an official message, which is expected before the summer. We will continue to discuss this with the minister through UNL, but it remains an absolute condition that the language test must be taken off the table.’