Groningen, 3 December 2024 – The Groninger Student Union (GSb) has started a petition against the proposed controversial education reform at the Faculty of Arts. The student union claims that the reforms are being pushed through under the guise of budget cuts, but that the reforms are very bad for student welfare and education quality. ‘Nobody wants to study or work at the Faculty of Arts anymore if these nonsensical plans go ahead,’ says Jitske Wielers, chair of the GSb.
The faculty wants to reduce the number of courses by 30%, eliminating 400 courses, by offering more major courses, faculty-wide interdisciplinary courses and banning electives for smaller studies. They are doing this to cut costs as a result of the massive one-billion cuts from the national government. There were demonstrations against this across the country recently, with 25,000 protesters on Malieveld in The Hague on 25 November.
According to the student union, the proposed reforms are poorly thought out, bad for student welfare and bad for the quality of education. ‘They want to move towards a broad bachelor’s degree, and see this reform as a first step, they say. It is a dead‐alive business for a diverse faculty like Arts. Can you imagine it? There are already no German language-teacher students anymore, let alone ever again,’ Wielers continued.
The student union also argues that the faculty board is using the cuts as an opportunity argument to push through their controversial plans. Wielers: ‘Despite several promises, the board has never discussed alternative austerity options with the council, and at the same time they have been talking about a broad bachelor’s for 5 years. This is a transparent attempt to use the cuts as an excuse.’
With the first step of the changes threatening to be ‘pushed through’, the student union is launching a petition to stop the plans. ‘As students and education staff, we must stand up for the quality of our education and research, nationally and locally. We want this idiotic reform stopped, and we call on the faculty board to withdraw the plans. If they don’t, we ask the faculty council block the plans and vote against the updated Course and Examination Regulations.’ concludes Wielers. The petition has already collected nearly 100 signatures since its opening on Monday evening.
