Abolition of English-language bachelor’s programmes “unjust, misdirected and naïve”
A group of academics and students from the psychology department have issued an open letter calling for the reversal of the decision to abolish the English-taught bachelor’s programme, as planned by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, following a proposal by the organisation UNL.
Under the title Against language barriers. A call to protect international education in Dutch academia a group of academics and students has published an open letter online, protesting against the impending abolition of English-language bachelor’s programmes in psychology at the UvA and a number of other Dutch universities.
The open letter has now been signed by almost 450 people. UvA academics who have signed the letter include – among others – Denny Borsboom, Merel Kindt, Han van der Maas, Ingmar Visser and Bruno Verschuere, all of whom work in psychology. Staff and students from other psychology programmes in the Netherlands have also signed the letter.
Two weeks ago, it was announced that the English-language Bachelor’s programme in Psychology at various universities, including the UvA, will be discontinued in the context of the upcoming Internationalisation in Balance Act (Wib). Part of this act is a language test, which requires universities to demonstrate that existing and future English-language bachelor’s programmes are necessary for the labour market, for example. Universities fear that they will not pass this test and have decided to take action now. For the UvA, this means discontinuing the English-language bachelor’s programme in psychology and making significant changes to the English language requirements for economics. This was linked to the condition that the language test would be removed from the Wib. It has since become clear that the test will not be scrapped, according to a statement by the minister last week.
Up in arms
All over the Netherlands, those involved in English-language bachelor’s programmes in psychology are up in arms. They refer to English as “the Lingua Franca” of science, which is necessary for scientific and social success. “International programmes are an important pillar of the success of Dutch science. Sacrificing international bachelor’s programmes would seriously damage the quality of both education and research in psychology,” according to the letter’s authors.
According to them, psychology not only makes crucial contributions to mental health care, “but also plays an important role in areas such as recruitment and selection, neuroscience, data science, artificial intelligence, behavioural change, sustainability policy and educational innovation”. “The greatest challenges of our time, from climate change and obesity to polarisation, ultimately revolve around human behaviour,’ according to the psychologists.
The plan, which was drawn up in consultation with the umbrella organisation Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), is unjust, misdirected and naive, according to the authors of the letter. “Unjust because the proposal affects psychology almost exclusively, placing the entire burden of this policy on one discipline. Misdirected because the plan is pulling the wrong levers: creating a language barrier does not address the core of the problem. And strategically naïve because there is no guarantee that the pressure to reduce international programmes will stop, once psychology is once again entirely Dutch-language.”
