First Beethoven education installment unlocked

The Dutch government has announced an 80.9-million-euro top-up over the next two years for science and engineering education spread across the country. Secondary and higher vocational education institutes (MBOs and HBOs) and universities in the Brainport Eindhoven region will get the largest slice of the pie with 45.0 million euros. The Delft region will receive 9.4 million euros, Twente 20.5 million and the north 5.9 million. The investment is a start: the cabinet has already set aside a budget for future years. The goal is to train 33,000 additional technicians for the chip sector through 2030.

The allocation is part of the National Microchip Talent Reinforcement Plan, better known as Operation Beethoven. Last spring, the Dutch cabinet announced it would invest 2.5 billion euros in the chip sector. A one-time sum of 450 million euros has been budgeted for education purposes up to 2030, plus another 80 million euros per year structurally from 2031 onward. The bulk of the Beethoven money will be invested to improve infrastructure, build houses and solve grid congestion problems.

Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) will immediately step up student recruitment, in Europe and beyond. It expects to grow by about 70 percent on average in master’s student numbers in the coming years in studies such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, applied physics and mathematics & computer science.