Dutch economics schools are coming under financial pressure as student numbers decline, budgets are cut and political resistance to internationalisation increases. This is the warning from Ivo Arnold, Professor and former Vice Dean of Education at Erasmus School of Economics, in a contribution to the Dutch economics journal ESB.
Falling intake undermines economies of scale
According to Ivo Arnold, years of growth in economics education have come to a halt. The intake of both Dutch and international students is decreasing, causing the economies of scale that schools relied on to finance research to erode rapidly. At the same time, the field is particularly vulnerable because it depends heavily on direct government funding and has a relatively high proportion of international students.
Possible alternatives, such as securing more research funding from second- and third-stream sources or offering privately funded programmes, offer only limited relief, Arnold argues. The recent 'self-regulation package' from Universities of the Netherlands, which introduces intake caps and bilingual teaching in international bachelor’s programmes, further weakens economies of scale.
Call for central coordination and specialisation
Arnold calls for greater cooperation and specialisation between universities. In his view, the current landscape of degree programmes contains too much overlap, sometimes even within the same city. Whereas consolidation would normally occur in a sector facing declining demand, this almost never happens in academia. Only strong central coordination, supported by a sector plan with dedicated financial resources, can bring about the necessary alignment and rationalisation, he argues.
- Professor
- More information
You can download the column by Ivo Arnold above (In Dutch). For further questions, please contact Ronald de Groot, Media & Public Relations Officer at Erasmus School of Economics: rdegroot@ese.eur.nl, mobile: +31 6 53 641 846.
