Cutbacks or not, the workload in science must be reduced. That is what Minister Eppo Bruins writes to the House of Representatives. It’s “worrying” that after all these years, universities haven’t turned words into deeds.

Following a great deal of commotion about censorship, Eindhoven University of Technology news platform Cursor now has a new editorial statute. The Executive Board acknowledges the editorial team’s independence. The platform is ‘not a public relations vehicle’.

The universities will already be affected by the cutbacks next year, the budget of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science for the year 2025 shows. Most of the plans were already known, but now they’ve been concretised with the exact amounts and dates.

The government has abandoned cuts of 215 million euros to the universities’ national sector plans, news platform NOS reports. It intends to scrap starter and incentive grants instead.

The OWee is around the corner and soon everyone will be studying and working hard again. But a lot happened in higher education over the summer holiday. Read a overview below.

In September, employees of Dutch universities will get a salary increase of 3.7 percent and a one-off payment of 300 euros. In January, salaries will be increased by another one percent. Social safety will also be improved. What do the local TU Delft unions think about this?

Unions are disappointed that the negotiations for the collective labour agreements for universities have been difficult. Universities are reportedly reluctant to talk about social safety in particular.

It is a job that some people would kill for: university lecturer at TU Delft. Nevertheless, Volkert van der Wijk exchanged his highly desirable position to become an artist. And he does not regret his decision. “I now have more time for both art and science.”

According to sources of broadcaster NOS, Eppo Bruins will be the new minister of Education on behalf of Nieuw Sociaal Contract. Bruins chairs advisory council AWTI and was a member of the House of Representatives for ChristenUnie until 2021.

In legal proceedings, Cursor editor Bridget Spoor demands that the blacked out sections in an investigative report about censorship are made public. This was reported by Cursor, the journalism platform of TU Eindhoven. In the report, an investigative committee writes that the Executive Board stood in the way of ‘free journalistic operations’.