[lg policy] BON loses Dutch EMI lawsuit against HEIs

[Harold Schiffman]

 BON loses Dutch EMI lawsuit against HEIs Posted on Jul 12, 2018
<https://thepienews.com/news/bon-loses-dutch-emi-lawsuit-against-heis/>
by Claudia
Civinini <https://thepienews.com/author/claudia/> Posted in News
<https://thepienews.com/section/news/>, under Europe
<https://thepienews.com/region/europe/>.
Tagged with BON <https://thepienews.com/tags/bon/>, Maastricht
<https://thepienews.com/tags/maastricht/>, Netherlands
<https://thepienews.com/tags/netherlands/>, Twente
<https://thepienews.com/tags/twente/>.
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<https://thepienews.com/news/bon-loses-dutch-emi-lawsuit-against-heis/>.

A Dutch association that had launched a lawsuit against two universities
over “too many” courses taught in English has seen its claims rejected in
court.
Drienerlo Tower, an artwork by Wim T. Schippers on Twente University
campus. Photo: W.J. Maaskant/Wikimedia Commons Share this:
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*About Claudia Civinini*
Born and bred in Genoa, Italy, Claudia moved to Australia during her
masters degree to teach Italian. She studied and worked in Melbourne for
five years before moving to London, where she finally managed to combine
her love for writing and her passion for education. She worked for three
years as a reporter for the EL Gazette before joining The PIE News.

Dutch minister of education encouraged universities to “take
responsibility” for internationalisation

The University of Maastricht and the University of Twente had been taken to
court by association Better Education Netherlands contesting their policy
to teach some of their courses in English earlier this year.

BON had been campaigning against the predominance of English in Dutch
higher education and alleged that the two universities’ motivation to teach
their courses in English was merely financial and not dictated by the
specific nature of the course taught, as the law requires.

“BON’s statement that this was motivated by finance was…sufficiently
contradicted by the University”

But the judge found that the two universities had “sufficiently
substantiated” that their language policy decision complied with the law,
Twente University Spokesperson Bertyl Lankhaar told *The PIE News*.

“We are satisfied with the decision of the judge to reject the claims of
BON,” she said.

“The reasons underlying our decision to offer the Psychology bachelor
program in English can be traced back to the criteria set out in article
7.2 sub c of the WHW, namely the specific nature, organisation and quality
of the education and the national origin of students.”

“BON’s statement that this choice was mainly motivated by financial motives
was, according to the judge, sufficiently contradicted by the University of
Twente.”

Lankhaar added that the university will continue to remain actively
involved in the debate around higher education internationalisation and to
carefully assess the language policy in its educational programs.

Although its claims have been rejected, BON was positive about the general
outcome of the ruling. In their view, it will increase pressure on the
Education Inspectorate to scrutinise universities’ English language
policies, it said in a statement
<https://www.beteronderwijsnederland.nl/nieuws/2018/07/vonnis-rechter/>.

Last month, the Dutch minister of education, culture and science presented
a letter
<https://thepienews.com/news/dutch-minister-tells-heis-to-ensure-accessibility-in-letter/>
to parliament to outline her position on higher education
internationalisation. She also urged universities to “take responsibility”
for their internationalisation policy and ensure higher education remains
accessible to Dutch students.


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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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