Minister Bruins: “Further education faces significant challenges, including declining student numbers and budget cuts by this cabinet. Additionally, the Netherlands is dealing with major labor market shortages. How do we ensure that every student in every region is trained in such a way that they can make a valuable contribution to the economy and society in the future? This requires more collaboration and management of the educational offerings. So that we prevent crucial education from disappearing and continue to train students for the challenges of today and the future.”
Training for Societal Challenges
Bruins priority is to ensure more national coordination regarding the educational offerings in both mbo, hbo, and wo. Due to declining student numbers, not every program can continue to exist everywhere. Strategic choices, more collaboration, and national coordination are necessary to ensure crucial education for Dutch society and to train students for societal challenges. Students obviously retain the option to choose a course that fits their talents and interests. The goals for mbo, hbo, and wo are the same, though the approach differs according to the sector.
Hbo and Wo: Joint Responsibility in Law
In hbo and wo, institutions are increasingly focusing on collaboration, but current laws and funding make further collaboration difficult. This is because the law focuses on the interests of the individual institution. Bruins wants to legally establish that colleges and universities work together on educational offerings and consider the common national interest. The legal basis should ensure that educational institutions jointly manage the educational offerings, from local to national level. The minister wants to develop frameworks together with the field that allow institutions to ensure that crucial education is preserved and that they can respond to what the economy and society require. Bruins is working this out in collaboration with the field, while also keeping an eye on the importance of the region, shortage sectors, and unique programs.
Mbo: Investing in Programs Important for the Region
For mbo, Bruins finds it important that students can continue to follow good education within reasonable travel distance, even in regions where the offerings are under pressure due to declining student numbers. Work is being done on an Mbo Pact between employers and educational institutions to create an educational offering that responds to the labor market of the future. The minister also wants to encourage the offering and investment in programs that are important for the region and societal challenges, such as in healthcare, safety, and technology.
More Stable Funding for Mbo, Ho, and Wo
In addition to more management and national collaboration on educational offerings, Bruins wants to make funding for further education more stable. The decline in the number of students has significant consequences for further education, as funding is currently highly dependent on the number of enrolled students. Minister Bruins aims for a more stable form of funding where declining student numbers have less impact. This will also reduce the incentives to compete for student numbers and make collaboration easier. For mbo, he will work with the mbo sector in the coming time to develop several possible funding variants. By the end of this year, the minister expects to make a choice. The new, more stable funding method could be implemented in 2029, as a legislative amendment is first required. Also, for hbo and wo, together with the sector, how the funding can look in the future will be worked out, so that the preferred option can be presented in 2026. Meanwhile, Bruins is already increasing the fixed part for hbo by adding practice-oriented research to it. This will provide researchers with more certainty about their income and strengthen the anchoring of practice-oriented research in hbo. Additionally, he wants to reduce administrative burdens for educational institutions by decreasing accountability pressure. This also means that the minister will interfere less with decisions made at the institutional governance level.
Research and Science for the Benefit of the Netherlands
Bruins wants Dutch science to increasingly connect with society to solve challenges. He attaches great importance to academic freedom. Bruins also wants to legally establish the possibility of obtaining a research title at hbo, the professional doctorate. By order of the House of Representatives, a few tens of millions per year will be cut less on resources for reducing the workload of scientists. He does not impose conditions on this; low regulatory pressure is an important principle.
Europe remains important for maintaining the top position of Dutch science. The Netherlands is a net recipient of European scientific funding, so the cabinet is aiming for an ambitious and effective successor to the current Horizon Europe, which financially supports scientific research in Europe.
Cooperation is also important in Europe for the strategic security of valuable knowledge. Bruins is also fully focusing on this at home, for example with the screening law that is being developed for scientists who want to work with information that is valuable for national security.