"An' you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone - for the times they are a-changin'."
I went protesting on Friday.
The government, in the nature of 'making cuts', has decided to attack the students' budgets, mostly by going for those students who take longer than 4 years to finish their degrees. In essence, if you take longer than one extra year to finish your degree, you will be fined. This fine amounts to about 3000,- annually (though it usually gets higher). If you're ill, your loss. If you're an involved student who used a year to be part of a committee, who did an internship, who went abroad, well, your loss again. If you switched majors, too bad! On top of that, they want to take away the student's governmental aid for the Master's, which includes the free public transit pass (which is a huge deal, given that a train ticket is expensive: for a 45 minute trip to Amsterdam, I will pay about 10,-. This means 20 bucks a day, 80 bucks a week (if I'm lucky and have classes on four days only) and 320 bucks a month.) (I really like parentheses, by the way.)
I'm not much affected by this particular governmental proposal, because I will be finishing my Bachelor's this year and given that I live with my parents, the amount of governmental aid I receive isn't all that much anyway. I will have to write two theses this semester and as such, these plans have put a severe wrench in my plants to go visit Tjisca in St. Louis in June, but in the long term of things, that's not much: I won't be giving up a future or nothing. Still, it's ridiculous: not only they be putting these plans in effect this September (which means you can't really prepare in any way for these plans if you are currently a year off course with your major), but they will also be fining the universities these so-called 'eternal students' attend. Which means a lot of drop-outs and, well, a severe degradation of our country's higher education. Universities will want to avoid these fines, so diplomas will eventually become a lot easier to come by.
The current government also wants to reclaim its position in the top 5 of 'knowledge economies' (economies operating through knowledge, research and highly educated individuals). Naturally, the best of course of action is to take away money from higher education then, isn't it?
Anyway. The protest went fine, despite the slight rain. Many fun signs (including one banner that read: "Banner for sale: 3.000,-") and many good speakers, even those that opposed the students' cause. Damn cold, though. My feet were clumps of ice. However, the final speaker, the big kahoona, the current minister of Education who proposed these cuts, was a jerk. He kicked off with a "thank you for gathering here on my birthday" and "thank you for celebrating this government's 100th day in office in this way," antagonizing the crowd in mere seconds. Nothing much happened, though: he kept very politically avoiding the questions the interviewer asked him, then threw a hissy-fit and left when a tomato was flung at him. Five minutes was all he had to spare for 15.000 citizens. Lame.
The government, in the nature of 'making cuts', has decided to attack the students' budgets, mostly by going for those students who take longer than 4 years to finish their degrees. In essence, if you take longer than one extra year to finish your degree, you will be fined. This fine amounts to about 3000,- annually (though it usually gets higher). If you're ill, your loss. If you're an involved student who used a year to be part of a committee, who did an internship, who went abroad, well, your loss again. If you switched majors, too bad! On top of that, they want to take away the student's governmental aid for the Master's, which includes the free public transit pass (which is a huge deal, given that a train ticket is expensive: for a 45 minute trip to Amsterdam, I will pay about 10,-. This means 20 bucks a day, 80 bucks a week (if I'm lucky and have classes on four days only) and 320 bucks a month.) (I really like parentheses, by the way.)
I'm not much affected by this particular governmental proposal, because I will be finishing my Bachelor's this year and given that I live with my parents, the amount of governmental aid I receive isn't all that much anyway. I will have to write two theses this semester and as such, these plans have put a severe wrench in my plants to go visit Tjisca in St. Louis in June, but in the long term of things, that's not much: I won't be giving up a future or nothing. Still, it's ridiculous: not only they be putting these plans in effect this September (which means you can't really prepare in any way for these plans if you are currently a year off course with your major), but they will also be fining the universities these so-called 'eternal students' attend. Which means a lot of drop-outs and, well, a severe degradation of our country's higher education. Universities will want to avoid these fines, so diplomas will eventually become a lot easier to come by.
The current government also wants to reclaim its position in the top 5 of 'knowledge economies' (economies operating through knowledge, research and highly educated individuals). Naturally, the best of course of action is to take away money from higher education then, isn't it?
Anyway. The protest went fine, despite the slight rain. Many fun signs (including one banner that read: "Banner for sale: 3.000,-") and many good speakers, even those that opposed the students' cause. Damn cold, though. My feet were clumps of ice. However, the final speaker, the big kahoona, the current minister of Education who proposed these cuts, was a jerk. He kicked off with a "thank you for gathering here on my birthday" and "thank you for celebrating this government's 100th day in office in this way," antagonizing the crowd in mere seconds. Nothing much happened, though: he kept very politically avoiding the questions the interviewer asked him, then threw a hissy-fit and left when a tomato was flung at him. Five minutes was all he had to spare for 15.000 citizens. Lame.