Cabinet launches €200 million plan to boost HE cooperation

The government of the Netherlands allocated €60 million (US$59 million) this year to higher education institutions to improve cooperation within the various sectors of science and thereby reduce the workload, reports NL Times. The money comes from the previously announced €200 million annual investment into higher education sector plans.

Robbert Dijkgraaf, minister of education, culture and science, announced that the remaining €140 million would follow in the spring of 2023. The minister decided to advance €60 million of the 2023 structural investment based on advice from the committee set up to oversee the higher education sector plans. The advance should address the most urgent bottlenecks for higher education as quickly as possible.

According to the minister, the sector plans should improve cohesion and cooperation between education and research and improve the working conditions in higher education by reducing the workload and creating more room for permanent contracts. Instead of all institutions focusing on the same research, the higher education institutions can make agreements about which pursues which direction of study, creating more capacity. “In this way, the Cabinet, in collaboration with the universities, is increasing the quality of education and research.”
Full report on the NL Times site