Consequences

Explanation

Consequence: University staff work structurally and massively. Teachers use their research time for education and work on research and social impact in their free time.
From a survey that the trade unions In November 2016, FNV and VAWO carried out work among more than 2,500 employees at Dutch universities, showing that 78% of university staff work through the weekends and evenings. Nevertheless, 73% of employees said they would not get the job done. Over three quarters of them can not compensate for this overtime. 62% of the respondents indicate that they can not afford illness because of time pressure; 45% work through illness. Moreover, a large majority of the 2,500 respondents (59%) experience physical or psychological complaints as a result of the high workload in the past three years (2013-2016). In FNV / VAWO's survey, three-quarters of respondents indicated that the workload has increased in recent years, partly due to a shortage of staff, an inadequate hourly allowance and an increase in student numbers.

Consequence: large workload
From research of the Sociaal Fonds voor de Kennissector on Basis on the employee monitors of seven universities, it appears that the work pressure is significantly higher compared to other sectors. In addition, 47% report experiencing a high or very high workload. As can be seen in the table below, this is accompanied by a lower involvement, enthusiasm and satisfaction:

Specific groups
All the employees of the university have to deal with the problems mentioned above. Recently it became clear that PhD students, in addition to the other problems, are also particularly affected by mental problems. From a research report from Leiden University (June 2017) about the mental well-being of their own PhD students, it appears that 38 3% of Leiden PhD students are at risk of serious mental problems. & Nbsp; 46.8% of the respondents indicated that they experienced tension and constant pressure. A year earlier, a similar survey of the University of Amsterdam showed that 36 , 5% of UvA PhD students were at risk of clinical depression, compared to an overall average of 19%.

Consequence: new graduates will not get a chance
As a result of the structural decline in funding and the large uncertainty in financing, the number of flexible contracts at the university for PhD graduates has seriously increased increased (between 2006 and 2016: Assistant Professor from 20% to 31%; Other academic staff from 66% to 75%). The consequence is that those who want to continue their research usually confront with & nbsp; a long period of uncertain working conditions with high performance pressure and work stress.

Consequence: students receive education in larger groups
In general it should be clear that such a large impoverishment of academic education can not remain without consequences for its quality, as also observed in the open letter from the University Board of the University from Amsterdam to Minister Van Engelshoven. The preparation time for lectures has clearly decreased, the number of students per working group has increased. The number of theses that teachers are expected to supervise is often so great that the conditions for careful and involved guidance are lacking in many places.