Surprisingly, many in the higher education community are still feeling pretty good about future trends. While 2024 was problematic for higher education and research worldwide, 2025 is not looking better at all. There is an American saying that may apply here: “Whistling past the graveyard”, that is, ignoring reality. At the same time, the right-wing reality higher education is facing is itself full of contradictions between what is said and what is done, making predictions rather complicated. In its 2024 plan, the right-wing Dutch government mentioned the importance of innovation 85 times, but then cut the budget for higher education and research by €1 billion (US1.03 billion) a year (later reducing this amount to half a billion after pressure from the opposition – and taking that money away from healthcare).
