The law, which is intended to promote the internationalisation of higher education and scientific research, was accepted at the end of the debate without a vote.
The senators in the House did have some doubts about the RUG’s plans to open a campus in China. Especially CDA and SP questioned the necessity of it. ‘What is the added value of a branch campus over a joint programme (with foreign institutes, ed.)’, GroenLinks also wanted to know. Bussemaker did not mince words: ‘Internationalisation is happening and is recommended, hiding behind our dykes is no longer an option.’
The outgoing minister thinks the option of setting up a campus abroad makes for a nice addition to the already existing options for international collaboration. But, she says, that does not mean the university can do as it pleases. ‘I will instate certain provisions, and that’s what this law is about’, she said.
Guarantees
The minister wants the university to explain the reasoning behind the campus. ‘I want to judge their application in relation to its added value for Dutch education’, she said. According to Bussemaker, the law is intended to guarantee academic freedom at foreign campuses.
D66 asked the minister whether the Dutch Inspectorate of Education can be used to guard academic freedom at the Chinese campus. ‘They might provide a welcome support to the Groningen managers there’, said D66 MP Alexander Rinnooy Kan. The minister did promise that the Inspectorate will assess whether they need to make any local inspections.
Research universities and universities of applied sciences that want to set up a campus abroad have to scrape together the funds themselves. There are no tax funds to help education abroad. Any extra money that the institutes manage to earn does not have to be handed over to the Dutch state.
Promotion rights
The legislative proposal encompassed not just the internationalisation of higher educational institutes; it also discussed the expansion of the right to confer doctoral degrees. On Tuesday, the Upper House voted for the proposal that universities could instate senior lecturers as PhD supervisors. Currently, only professors have the right to confer doctoral degrees. According to the members, the expansion will lead to better career perspectives for Dutch researchers. It also dovetails with international developments.