THE HAGUE: The growing popularity of
English as a medium of instruction at Dutch universities is ringing alarm bells among local lecturers and students, with some now even calling for government intervention.
As Shakespeare’s mother tongue spreads in lecture halls across the county’s 14 universities, the Dutch education department is finalising a proposal to deal with the matter. Britain’s exit from the
European Union has only accelerated the phenomenon, with international students flocking to the
Netherlands which provides an ideal base for those wishing to study in English within the EU.
Some 90% of the Dutch population speaks English, to the envy of many of its less Anglo-competent neighbours. To add to the attraction, many local universities are much cheaper than their British or US-based counterparts. Some “65% of bachelor’s degrees are in Dutch while 15% of master’s degrees are in Dutch,” education ministry spokesman Michiel Hendrikx said. That some 85% of all master’s degrees are presented in English riles the largest teachers’ association, whose acronym
BON stands for “Better Education Netherlands” in Dutch.
“The Dutch language is gradually disappearing from campuses,” lamented BON’s chairman Ad Verbrugge, stressing the “seriousness” of an “unprecedented situation in Europe.” The Dutch education ministry will soon publish a letter “with the minister’s position on the subject,” Hendrikx said.
This follows a report by the Royal Dutch Academy for Arts and Sciences, which blasted the Netherlands for “failing to protect and uphold the quality of Dutch as a language and over-estimating the importance of English”.