Court rejects BON’s claim
The Utrecht court has issued its verdict in summary proceedings filed by pressure group Beter Onderwijs Nederland (BON) against Maastricht University (UM), the University of Twente and the Inspectorate of Education. The court rejected BON’s claim that UM may not turn Dutch degree programmes into English programmes, for at least one year. Within that year, the government should come up with a well-considered new language policy.
“Of course we are pleased that the court rejected the claims”, says UM President Prof. dr. Martin Paul. “We were confident about the verdict and are pleased that our internationalisation policy and language policy, which is based on decades of experience and well-thought-out choices, has been vindicated by this verdict.”
Netherlands Minister of Education, Culture and Science Ingrid van Engelshoven recently published her vision on internationalisation, which was discussed in Parliament. In her letter, the Minister emphasised the importance of internationalisation and a well-considered language policy, which, she says, must be tailored towards the specific context of each study programme and region. According to UM, today’s verdict is in line with government policy and illustrates that on an institutional level, internationalisation policy and language policy must be implemented in a careful and well-documented manner.
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