Sweeping cuts to the Dutch higher education and research budget have ¡°damaged universities¡¯ confidence¡± in the government, sector leaders say, with several universities planning to initiate legal proceedings.

By approving a reduction of €500 million (?429 million) to higher education and science funding, including €217 million in cuts to grants for early career academics, universities say the government has contravened a 2022 ¡°administrative agreement¡± which promised a total of €300 million a year for starter and incentive grants.

Acting on the instruction of then minister for education, culture and science Robbert Dijkgraaf, universities began awarding grants directly after the agreement, the umbrella body Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) said ¨C leaving them, after the cuts to the grants, ¡°in a tricky position¡±.

¡°This has damaged confidence in the government, and specifically in the instrument of administrative agreements,¡± said UNL spokesperson Ruben Puylaert. ¡°The government has unilaterally broken the administrative agreement on higher education and research.¡±

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¡°If the government does not reverse this decision during the objection procedure, the court will have to pass judgment on it. Such a ruling will be necessary to restore trust,¡± he added.

The universities of Radboud and Tilburg both intend to begin legal action against the cuts, Puylaert said. Speaking to Times Higher Education, Radboud spokesperson Martijn Gerritsen?said: ¡°We signed a long-term agreement that would take us to 2031, to give some kind of certainty to universities. If you have such an agreement, you would expect it to continue to 2031 as promised.¡±

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¡°For Radboud, it will be €22 million [per year] that we can¡¯t spend ¨C money that was meant to be for starter grants, to do all kinds of research. We can¡¯t fund those grants because the government will not follow up on the agreement that we made.¡±

¡°€22 million is a lot of money. You can¡¯t do that research, and you also lose the results of that research, so it¡¯s bad for society as well,¡± Gerritsen said.

The Dutch senate approved the budget earlier this month despite widespread protest across the country, with institutions in?10 university cities recently participating in ¡°relay strikes¡± throughout March and April.

Multiple universities have already announced reorganisations likely to involve layoffs, with The University of Twente, University College Roosevelt, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Open University of the Netherlands among those to warn of redundancies.

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The budget ¡°means significantly less revenue for universities, with all the consequences that entails. This has negative implications for both research and education,¡± Puylaert said.

¡°We have already seen reorganisations and layoffs; study programmes are at risk of disappearing. Eventually, the entire Netherlands will feel the negative consequences of this.¡±

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com