Universities: cut the bullshit, not the budget

Massive protests against budget cuts for Dutch universities are currently being prepared, and the Netherlands isn’t alone in this. In the UK, university bankruptcies are feared, while in the US, president-elect Trump is threatening to close the Department of Education. Science and education are under fire of shrinking government budgets and, in some cases, anti-establishment sentiments.

In a way, I understand this. What goes up, must come down: there’s no infinite growth model, and after years of investments, sometimes cuts need to follow.

Universities argue that education is a prerequisite for innovation and that every euro spent on research pays for itself many times over. They also argue that science underpins a free and developed society and that freedom in research in humanities, arts and natural sciences is essential for that. (On a side note: the engineering sciences are typically not included in that reasoning, but let’s not get distracted.) In general, I agree with all of that. These are all valid arguments for why budget cuts are bad for society and the economy.

However, the European economy is already stagnating without these cuts. It hardly shows any productivity growth, as emphasized by the Draghi report. While we sell handbags, champagne and make-up and count L’Oréal, Hermes and LVMH among our largest EU companies, the US dominates in AI and data, with the so-called FAANG companies, and Asia dominates in semiconductors, with Samsung and TSMC.

Still, unemployment isn’t low: most people have jobs and there are many vacancies. The only conclusion can be that we’re massively not doing the right things. We’re active in markets that neither have the growth nor the strategic value. That’s worrying. And the worst part is that we know this: many people realize they don’t really contribute and have so-called “bullshit jobs,” by their own account.

Since universities are self-proclaimed pillars of the economy, they share part of the blame for this. If science and education are so important, then we need some self-reflection. What are we doing wrong? Are we educating the right people? At the right level? In the right fields? Education is a means to a goal and therefore budget for universities is too. Rather than only worrying about budget cuts, I worry about whether we have the right strategy too.

There are obvious problems in academia. A major issue is the quantity-over-quality discussion. Students are a business model for universities, as tuition fees are a main source of income. The economic laws then tell us that universities will lower standards and will set up new, easy and popular studies. Are these so-called cash-cow studies contributing significantly to innovation and productivity? I doubt it. Moreover, all those cash-cow students aren’t choosing much-needed professional and vocational studies.

Another problem is that universities don’t seem to align their portfolio of education. Most policymakers will agree that engineering studies are key to innovation. Then why are there more programs for gender studies, archaeology, astronomy and theology than, for example, electrical engineering? Labor markets matter.

Of course, we’ll always need such explorative and free-thinking educational programs and research fields, as they contribute to our society in many other ways than purely economic. The strategic question is: how many of them do we need and for how many students?

Untargeted budget cuts for universities are bad for an innovative economy. However, the current debate lacks substance and we’re not capitalizing on opportunities. Universities seem to look backward, afraid to lose, rather than forward, aiming for growth. Panta rhei, things change: we might need to cut to invest. I would urge governments to formulate a vision and a strategy for universities, rather than just cutting budgets. The Dutch Beethoven plan to support semicon is a start, but too ad-hoc and only focused on one field.

We need to manage the talent pipeline better with a long-term strategy, to prepare the population for the future economy. We owe it to the taxpayers and the young people, the prospective students. Cash-cow studies lead to bullshit jobs. It’s all in the name.