Inspection: Human Geography and Planning is lawfully allowed to be in English

Can a course be taught in English or not? The course in Human Geography and Planning at the UvA certainly can, according to the recent report by the Education Inspectorate: English-language university
bachelor‘s programmes. At the request of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Inspectorate investigated the reasons why courses are taught in English.

The ministry’s request is in line with the new Balanced Internationalisation Act (WiB), which would be an addition or amendment to the current Higher Education and Scientific Research Act. This bill requires Dutch bachelor programmes to offer at least two-thirds of the curriculum in Dutch. A maximum of one-third may be in another language, to make room for (guest) lectures by international teachers and researchers, for example. In short, the law wants to ensure that there will soon be a good reason to offer a bachelor programme in its entirety in another language.

The Inspectorate examined whether universities indeed have these reasons for five different programmes at different universities, including Human Geography and Planning at the UvA. That programme was previously offered in Dutch, but since the academic year ‘23/’24 it can be followed in both a bilingual and a fully English-language version. According to the UvA, there are several reasons for this. For example, the Dutch and Amsterdam examples are regularly placed in an international perspective in the course material, and fieldwork abroad is a regular occurrence.

Talent

Another important argument for the decision to offer the programme in English, which is mentioned in the report, is the possibility of attracting the greatest talents in the field, even if they come from abroad and therefore do not speak Dutch. This applies to both teachers and students. The university also attaches great importance to the wide range of perspectives that are brought in this way. Moreover, it appears that contact between Dutch students and internationals outside of class is not always easy, which the UvA hopes to overcome by offering education in English.

The Education Inspectorate concludes that the reasons for offering English-language education, as put forward by all five programmes, already currently fit within one or more of the exemption criteria of the Higher Education and Research Act (WHW). “The decision to offer these programmes in English was carefully considered,” the Inspectorate writes in the report. “All of the selected programmes are considered highly problematic if they were to be converted to Dutch.”