‘There’ll be no discussion, there’s never a discussion’

Aegee’s invitation to a “discussion evening about international education with State Secretary of Education Mark Rutte” arrived late at Delta’s office, too late to be published before the event. To ensure at least some TU foreign students would attend, the invite was forwarded to Delta’s foreign student journalists.

The most pugnacious of Delta’s foreign student journalists replied that he couldn’t attend, but, he added, “I know Mr. Rutte, more than once I’ve been to discussion evenings with him. He’s full of crap is what I can tell you. There’ll be no discussion, there’s never a discussion with this guy. For sure he’ll be asked tough questions and he’ll reply by avoiding answering, ignoring the question, changing the subject or doing all three.”

Rutte wasn’t “full of crap”, but his talk was full of the theory of international education, which probably sounds like crap to disgruntled, (€11,000 per year) fee-paying foreign students who want to talk about the real work- and study-related problems they’re facing here now.

As Rutte made clear during the discussion, dealing with foreign students’ day-to-day problems isn’t his job. Such problems are for the universities to solve. Rutte instead is a high-flying policy wonk, jetting . as he mentioned – from “a meeting in Norway about international education” to “a meeting with Colombia’s Education Minister.”

Rutte opened the discussion evening by asking how many of the 40 people present in the upstairs room of a Delft bar were international students? About half a dozen hands went up; but only a few were from TU Delft. Fortunately, shortly thereafter five of Delta’s foreign student journalists entered the room, bringing issues and grievances with them.
Revenues

In his opening remarks, Rutte headed for the theoretical clouds, floating from talk of the Bologna Treaty to grand plans for pan-European Union international education. Rutte was followed by a (Dutch) VSSD spokesman who called for lowering tuition fees, admitting more students from poor countries…international education as foreign development aid.

The VSSD guy’s comments may have been irritatingly naïve, but they did help focus the discussion, which frequently staggered around the room like a drunk heading for the toilet, as talk of “students picking asparagus who aren’t really students” was followed by some excited Dutch student and city council member’s pledge to make Delft the world’s greatest knowledge city!

International education isn’t charity, it’s business. Because it’s good for Holland’s economy, the government promotes and funds it. Direct revenue from tuition fees, living expenses, and indirect revenues from attracting clever foreigners here, some remaining after graduation to work for Dutch firms or universities, enriches Holland’s knowledge economy.

With international education placed in a business context, Rutte was asked if, having listened to the international students’ complaints, would he not agree that Holland just wasn’t ready for full-scale international education, that an ‘open for business’ sign was put up before the country could offer full value for money, that the right thing to do now is pause, fix existing problems, improve the system, and then start recruiting more international student-customers to Holland?

One might’ve expected Rutte, member of the VVD, Holland’s most pro-business political party, to accept this point, especially as he’d earlier praised international education at US and UK universities, where it’s a very profitable business. But Rutte did not agree. Instead, he cited the millions the Dutch government is investing in higher education. He also said: if the situation is so bad, why are more and more foreigners enrolling in Dutch universities?

As Rutte knows, monetary investments expect monetary returns, and market demand for international education is rising globally. A better question then is: If TU Delft’s foreign students could turn back time, would they choose to study here or elsewhere?
Construction sites

Delta’s foreign student journalists pursued the business/education line of questioning. Why, they asked Rutte, were they paying full rates but not getting full value for their money? And if they weren’t getting full value for money, shouldn’t they be getting discounts? As one student said, “If the universities don’t fulfill their promises, they’re in breach of contract!”

The foreign students’ complaints reminded one of the stories told by package holidaymakers, who, arriving at some distant seaside destination, discover that the glossy photos in the tourist brochure back home don’t match the reality of half-built hotels, empty swimming pools, bad locations…. Are Dutch universities like half-built resort hotels: international universities as construction sites?

There’s certainly more than a faade erected here. Much of TU Delft the international university is running well. But the devil’s in the details, which here are often frustratingly incomplete or wrapped in red tape. There’s a room, but it’s a small, expensive metal box; English is spoken, but not always and not always well enough by professors and instructors; visas are grossly overpriced; internships stalled or lost because of bureaucracy; foreign students limited to working just ten hours per week legally….

One foreign student present at the discussion was Yang Yang, a Chinese MSc student nervously waiting for the work permit she needs to accept an internship at a prestigious Dutch architecture firm. Yang was reduced to begging Rutte’s press officer for his phone number, hoping that he might help get her the permit quickly, so she wouldn’t lose her dream internship.

A consequence of the ‘half-built’ international university system is that some foreign students feel they’re being cheated, that they’re the system’s guinea pigs or proefkonijnen, that they’re not getting the promised value for their paid-in-advance money, which, in business terms, means they’re getting a bad deal.

So who’s to blame? Not the TU staffers in the International Office who work hard to ensure foreign students have pleasant, productive stays here, but who working in a half-built system are often as helpless as some ‘resort hotel’ cleaning woman confronted by angry guests shouting, “Why are there no towels!?”, while elsewhere, over aperitifs in Bologna perhaps, the hotel owners sit debating the type of towels they may or may not order in future.

The Dutch will eventually finish the job of building a complete international university system, but not in time for this class of foreign students. As one foreign student asked Rutte: “But we’re here now, what can we do?” Rutte replied, “Go talk to somebody at the university.” The student said, “I did, but it didn’t help.” Rutte answered, “Well, maybe you can sue.”

With the discussion finished and Rutte gone, Delta’s foreign students sat talking at a terrace table. The general feeling was that they were victims of circumstance, of being at the right university but at the wrong time. What can we do? Who can we turn to?…were questions left unanswered.

“We should’ve started an International Student Organization, so that we’d be better organized to fight for our rights!” one student finally said. To which a financially strapped student from South America, who earlier had entertainingly explained his technique for buying ten bananas at C1000 for the ‘bon‘ price of one tomato, replied jokingly, “Well, we could always occupy the President’s office until our demands are met!”

Mark Rutte (Photo: Hans Stakelbeek/FMAX)

Aegee’s invitation to a “discussion evening about international education with State Secretary of Education Mark Rutte” arrived late at Delta’s office, too late to be published before the event. To ensure at least some TU foreign students would attend, the invite was forwarded to Delta’s foreign student journalists.

The most pugnacious of Delta’s foreign student journalists replied that he couldn’t attend, but, he added, “I know Mr. Rutte, more than once I’ve been to discussion evenings with him. He’s full of crap is what I can tell you. There’ll be no discussion, there’s never a discussion with this guy. For sure he’ll be asked tough questions and he’ll reply by avoiding answering, ignoring the question, changing the subject or doing all three.”

Rutte wasn’t “full of crap”, but his talk was full of the theory of international education, which probably sounds like crap to disgruntled, (€11,000 per year) fee-paying foreign students who want to talk about the real work- and study-related problems they’re facing here now.

As Rutte made clear during the discussion, dealing with foreign students’ day-to-day problems isn’t his job. Such problems are for the universities to solve. Rutte instead is a high-flying policy wonk, jetting . as he mentioned – from “a meeting in Norway about international education” to “a meeting with Colombia’s Education Minister.”

Rutte opened the discussion evening by asking how many of the 40 people present in the upstairs room of a Delft bar were international students? About half a dozen hands went up; but only a few were from TU Delft. Fortunately, shortly thereafter five of Delta’s foreign student journalists entered the room, bringing issues and grievances with them.
Revenues

In his opening remarks, Rutte headed for the theoretical clouds, floating from talk of the Bologna Treaty to grand plans for pan-European Union international education. Rutte was followed by a (Dutch) VSSD spokesman who called for lowering tuition fees, admitting more students from poor countries…international education as foreign development aid.

The VSSD guy’s comments may have been irritatingly naïve, but they did help focus the discussion, which frequently staggered around the room like a drunk heading for the toilet, as talk of “students picking asparagus who aren’t really students” was followed by some excited Dutch student and city council member’s pledge to make Delft the world’s greatest knowledge city!

International education isn’t charity, it’s business. Because it’s good for Holland’s economy, the government promotes and funds it. Direct revenue from tuition fees, living expenses, and indirect revenues from attracting clever foreigners here, some remaining after graduation to work for Dutch firms or universities, enriches Holland’s knowledge economy.

With international education placed in a business context, Rutte was asked if, having listened to the international students’ complaints, would he not agree that Holland just wasn’t ready for full-scale international education, that an ‘open for business’ sign was put up before the country could offer full value for money, that the right thing to do now is pause, fix existing problems, improve the system, and then start recruiting more international student-customers to Holland?

One might’ve expected Rutte, member of the VVD, Holland’s most pro-business political party, to accept this point, especially as he’d earlier praised international education at US and UK universities, where it’s a very profitable business. But Rutte did not agree. Instead, he cited the millions the Dutch government is investing in higher education. He also said: if the situation is so bad, why are more and more foreigners enrolling in Dutch universities?

As Rutte knows, monetary investments expect monetary returns, and market demand for international education is rising globally. A better question then is: If TU Delft’s foreign students could turn back time, would they choose to study here or elsewhere?
Construction sites

Delta’s foreign student journalists pursued the business/education line of questioning. Why, they asked Rutte, were they paying full rates but not getting full value for their money? And if they weren’t getting full value for money, shouldn’t they be getting discounts? As one student said, “If the universities don’t fulfill their promises, they’re in breach of contract!”

The foreign students’ complaints reminded one of the stories told by package holidaymakers, who, arriving at some distant seaside destination, discover that the glossy photos in the tourist brochure back home don’t match the reality of half-built hotels, empty swimming pools, bad locations…. Are Dutch universities like half-built resort hotels: international universities as construction sites?

There’s certainly more than a faade erected here. Much of TU Delft the international university is running well. But the devil’s in the details, which here are often frustratingly incomplete or wrapped in red tape. There’s a room, but it’s a small, expensive metal box; English is spoken, but not always and not always well enough by professors and instructors; visas are grossly overpriced; internships stalled or lost because of bureaucracy; foreign students limited to working just ten hours per week legally….

One foreign student present at the discussion was Yang Yang, a Chinese MSc student nervously waiting for the work permit she needs to accept an internship at a prestigious Dutch architecture firm. Yang was reduced to begging Rutte’s press officer for his phone number, hoping that he might help get her the permit quickly, so she wouldn’t lose her dream internship.

A consequence of the ‘half-built’ international university system is that some foreign students feel they’re being cheated, that they’re the system’s guinea pigs or proefkonijnen, that they’re not getting the promised value for their paid-in-advance money, which, in business terms, means they’re getting a bad deal.

So who’s to blame? Not the TU staffers in the International Office who work hard to ensure foreign students have pleasant, productive stays here, but who working in a half-built system are often as helpless as some ‘resort hotel’ cleaning woman confronted by angry guests shouting, “Why are there no towels!?”, while elsewhere, over aperitifs in Bologna perhaps, the hotel owners sit debating the type of towels they may or may not order in future.

The Dutch will eventually finish the job of building a complete international university system, but not in time for this class of foreign students. As one foreign student asked Rutte: “But we’re here now, what can we do?” Rutte replied, “Go talk to somebody at the university.” The student said, “I did, but it didn’t help.” Rutte answered, “Well, maybe you can sue.”

With the discussion finished and Rutte gone, Delta’s foreign students sat talking at a terrace table. The general feeling was that they were victims of circumstance, of being at the right university but at the wrong time. What can we do? Who can we turn to?…were questions left unanswered.

“We should’ve started an International Student Organization, so that we’d be better organized to fight for our rights!” one student finally said. To which a financially strapped student from South America, who earlier had entertainingly explained his technique for buying ten bananas at C1000 for the ‘bon‘ price of one tomato, replied jokingly, “Well, we could always occupy the President’s office until our demands are met!”

Mark Rutte (Photo: Hans Stakelbeek/FMAX)