On Thursday, 11 December, a demonstration will take place in Brussels by staff and students from higher education protesting the budget cuts affecting universities and university colleges. We will gather at 12:00 noon at the VUB rectorate (Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Elsene). A collective departure is planned from Ghent: we will meet at 10:15 at Gent Sint-Pieters Station, from where we will take the train to Brussels, and then continue to Etterbeek, close to the VUB campus. The trade union organisations at Ghent University—ACOD, ACV, and VSOA—are calling on everyone to participate in this action. A delegation of students will also be present.
The reason for this action is the newly announced cuts in higher education. The Flemish government is reducing the basic funding for higher education by 46.3 million euros and is also cutting 14.5 million euros in funding for scientific research. But there are additional cuts as well: the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts will lose its structural subsidies; the conditions for students to obtain a study grant will be tightened, saving another 34 million euros. Moreover, the federal government had planned to (partially) abolish the tax exemption scheme for scientific personnel, which would have resulted in additional cuts amounting to tens of millions for the universities. This measure has been taken off the table for now, but may return to the agenda in the future.
All these cuts come on top of the structural underfunding of higher education. Funding per student in Flemish higher education fell from €10,100 per year in 2008 to €8,100 per year today. If we were to receive the same amount per student today, universities and university colleges would receive an additional 657 million euros each year; for Ghent University alone, this would amount to roughly 105 million euros annually extra. The newly announced cuts come on top of this existing structural underfunding.
A group of researchers has therefore launched a petition against these cuts: https://hogeronderwijsinopstand.be/. However, we also want to take action to denounce these budget reductions. The demonstration in Brussels is a first step; if it is successful, we plan to organise actions in other Flemish university cities starting next spring.
We strongly encourage you to join this action and to motivate colleagues to come along as well. If you would like to be actively involved in these actions, please let us know! Please note: no strike notice has been filed for this action.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us through e-mail at ACOD@UGent.be