The UT is expecting a 1.2 million euro decrease in the State's contribution in the fiscal year 2003. This 1 percent cut is a result of the coalition agreement of the Balkenende cabinet, which wants to cut back drastically on higher education. The universities can count on an additional cutback of up to 5 percent in 2006, which for the UT translates to over 6 million euros.
'They call it an efficiency-cut', says Willem te Beest, who holds the finance portfolio in the Executive Board. 'But that is completely unjustified: it's just an economy measure. It appears that the people who wrote the coalition agreement seem to think that you can keep the quality of the scientific education and research up to standards with the same money as ten or fifteen years ago. That is a very distorted image and I'm concerned about that.'
According to Te Beest, the 2003-cut is probably unavoidable but for the following years he wants to have some 'strong and substantial conversations' with the involved members of Cabinet to get the increasing cuts either dismissed or compensated.
Te Beest: 'The members of the European Union have agreed to make Europe a center of knowledge. The Netherlands will be chair-country of the EU in 2004. It would be quite embarrassing if we had to say that we're not participating in that, wouldn't it?'
