Motion adopted: urgent independent investigation into DUO

Motion adopted: urgent independent investigation into DUO

The House of Representatives adopted a motion of DENK and D66 by a large majority: an independent, external investigation into DUO’s enforcement practices is urgently needed.

The detection of basic grant fraud is rattling and students with a migration background in particular are in the crosshairs, Higher Education Press Agency, Investico and NOSop3 reported last week. DUO works with risk profiles and human assessments to detect abuse of the basic scholarship. The House explicitly calls for attention to the algorithm (who come into the picture as suspects?) and the personal assessment by enforcers (who will eventually be fined?).

A motion by GroenLinks on ‘reversing’ the burden of proof just did not make it. Students now sometimes get into trouble because DUO only has to make it ‘plausible’ that they are cheating, while students have to come up with hard evidence to refute the suspicion. Why doesn’t DUO have to come up with its own evidence? Minister Dijkgraaf wants to investigate before making such changes.

Discontinued

Incidentally, he has already had DUO’s algorithm stopped. For now, the study funding agency is only allowed to work with random samples. These will be less effective, he predicted, “but given the circumstances, I think it’s the most sensible thing we can do”.

(HOP, BB)