If nothing else, the Netherlands – or at least some well-trained Dutch athletes – excels at relays. During the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships, held in Apeldoorn from 6-9 March, all 4 x 400 m relays were won by Dutch teams: women, men and mixed. That sure is inspiring and we academics never shy away from inspiring examples. Therefore, as soon as the final gold medals were stowed away, Dutch universities started their own relay: the Relay Strikes in Higher Education 2025! Leiden set the ball rolling on 10 March, followed by Utrecht, Nijmegen, Amsterdam (UvA), Groningen, Enschede, Amsterdam (VU) and Rotterdam. Tilburg, Wageningen and Delft will follow. It’s Maastricht’s turn, and therefore my turn, on 16 April.

Why do we strike? Because, unthinkable as it may sound (or perhaps not that unthinkable, given that we have a radical right-wing government in the Netherlands, I’ll come back to that), our government has decided to severely cut the budget of Dutch higher education by 1.1 billion euros, which decision is supported – albeit grudgingly but perhaps even more unthinkable – by the Christian parties in de Senate.

Unthinkable, because:

• In its ‘Hoofdlijnenakkoord’ (the framework agreement – for some reason the current coalition parties never managed to come up with detailed plans or even a reasoned effect analysis of their bullet pointed wish list) the current government stated that ‘the availability of talent, strengthening of the knowledge economy, innovation, and (digital) infrastructure will be prioritized’, when it came to research and education (p. 24). And ‘innovation will be broadly interpreted’, ‘innovation will be given the space it deserves’, because innovation is seen as the solution for the current nitrogen crisis (which is predominantly an agricultural crisis) the Netherlands is currently facing (p. 11). ‘Investment in sustainable energy sources and innovation’ will make the Netherlands attractive for entrepreneurs (p. 13). In other words, even in its own paltry framework agreement, the government acknowledged the need for innovation, a knowledge economy and talent. However, how on earth do they think that will be achieved without proper education and research?!
• The world at large, and the Netherlands in it, is currently facing several crises, that are competing for priority: a climate crisis, a nitrogen crisis, an energy crisis, a safety crisis, a democracy and rule of law crisis. In order to understand the crises, experts are necessary. Coming up with solutions needs even more experts as not only are all crises complex and multifaceted, many of them are also interlinked. At the moment, the Netherlands is already facing an impasse in e.g. the housing crisis, since we cannot solve the nitrogen crisis. And although our government tries to convince us that we are in the midst of an asylum crisis, we are predominantly suffering from an incompetence crisis which leads – this is no joke – to a serious rule of law crisis. Therefore, the same question pops up again: how are we going to solve all those crises without proper education and research?
• And for the non-academic Dutchies who face the real, non-academic problems: the Netherlands is currently facing a general shortage of labour throughout its labour market. Without properly educated people and with a stop on migrant workers, how is qualified personnel ever to be found?

Apart from these seemingly obvious questions, one can also question the legality of the government plans. The previous Minister of Education, Robert Dijkgraaf agreed to invest 10 billion euros over a ten-year period in Dutch higher education in the revolutionary (for the educated ones: yes, pun intended) administrative agreement that was reached between the Ministry of Education and the Dutch universities on 14 July 2022. The current Minister of Education, Eppo Bruins – or colloquially: the Eppocalypse – however states that although that agreement was binding, it had never been the intention to conclude legally enforceable agreements. As a lawyer, I get a severe headache from these kinds of semantics.

But perhaps most importantly, these budget cuts threaten the most important values a State, in the exercise of all its duties, should stand for: freedom, democracy and the rule of law. These aspects can only be guaranteed when people are free to think and free to learn to think. But, contrary to what our current radical right-wing government seems to claim, thinking is not done with one’s gut, but with one’s brain. That makes it infinitely more difficult, I admit. Because for thinking with one’s gut, one only needs an anecdote, a rallying cry, a hunch, a feeling, or, in the most abstract sense, an idea. For being able to think with one’s brain, one needs information, concepts, analyses, arguments and the ability to connect ideas with facts and with each other on an abstract level. One needs to abstract from personal situations and be able to see the bigger picture. And for this, one needs knowledge and theories and an endless amount of practice, during which one is encouraged, stimulated, inspired corrected and guided by experts. In short, one needs an education. Only then will people be able to think about what abstract concepts as freedom, democracy and especially the rule of law mean. What the strengths are, and what the weaknesses. Why these values are so important and how we can protect them. Where the dangers lie, how to recognize those and how to fight them off. In this ever-globalizing world, that seems to be ruled by social media, which is the global voice of gut feelings rather than brain exercise, education therefore is more important than ever.

Unfortunately, the Netherlands currently has a government that is not ruled by facts, but by untested perceptions. ‘The Dutch population experiences an asylum crisis’ does not say anything about whether or not such a crisis exists, only that the guts of (a part of) the Dutch population thinks that this is the case. When asked in what way her new asylum laws will decrease the number of asylum seekers in the Netherlands, Marjolein Faber, Minister of Asylum affairs, only tells us that they will decrease the numbers, but not how. Simply changing the threshold for applying for permits for projects that will lead to nitrogen emissions, will not lower said emissions, nor will it change their effect on water quality and biodiversity. Taking a decision and then telling parliament that it was not a decision, does not change the fact that you took a decision. Our government shows us on a daily basis that it does not understand the basic values it should protect, let alone that it knows how to carry out the protective task. On the contrary, it actively works to undermine them, given the amount of advice given by the Council of State that is simply ignored. Our government thinks with its gut, rather than with its brain. In other words, our government, in contradiction of what it says, shows by its actions every day anew the necessity of (higher) education.

In conclusion: the planned budget cuts are illegal, short-sighted and dangerous. The Netherlands needs (higher) education for innovation, the Netherlands needs (higher) education to solve multiple crises, the Netherlands needs (higher) education to solve everyday problems but most importantly, the Netherlands needs higher education to save it from itself.

Therefore, I implore my fellow academics and everyone else to make yourselves heard on 16 April. Staakt!!! Staakt!!! Staakt!!!*

* Translation: Strike!!! Strike!!! Strike!!! To know to what historical manifesto it refers, one needs a proper education.