No language test for existing English-taught bachelor’s programmes

The language test proposed by the Dutch cabinet will not go ahead: a majority in the House of Representatives voted in favor of a motion last Tuesday to scrap it. The test could have affected four of the sixteen bachelor’s programmes offered by TU Delft.

It would have meant that these English-taught bachelor’s programmes would need to meet strict criteria in order to continue offering education in English instead of Dutch. Three TU Delft bachelor’s programmes are taught entirely in English: Aerospace Engineering, Nanobiology, and Earth, Climate and Technology. Computer Science and Engineering can be followed in either English or Dutch.

For a long time, the four governing parties — PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB — supported the plan for a language test. Their aim was to reduce the number of international students coming to the Netherlands, and ‘less English-taught education’ was seen as an easy way to achieve this. However, on Tuesday, NSC and VVD co-signed a motion from the CDA party to cancel the proposed ‘foreign-language education test’ for existing bachelor’s programmes — a motion expected to gain a majority.

Own proposal

One of the reasons: the number of international bachelor’s students is already declining. Moreover, Dutch universities have proposed their own plan to manage internationalisation more effectively — a move that received significant praise from politicians. Instead of implementing the language test, the motion’s signatories now want the Minister of Education to reach a ‘binding administrative agreement’ with the educational institutions.

For new bachelor’s programmes, however, the language of instruction will remain a point of debate: a commission responsible for assessing the efficiency of higher education will now also evaluate the necessity and relevance of offering programmes in foreign languages before they are approved.

HOP, Bas Belleman /Delta, Kim Bakker