28 The Linguist DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
www.ciol.org.uk
OPINION & COMMENT
What happens when a non-Anglophone country
promotes English in higher education? To find out,
Vincent Doumayrou looks at the Dutch model
W
hen, back in 1989, the
Netherlands Education Minister
suggested more university
courses in English, public outrage caused
parliament to pass a law making Dutch the
official language of education. Yet the
Netherlands is now Europe's biggest non-
Anglophone provider of university courses
taught in English; it is used in most Masters
degrees in Life Sciences, Engineering and
Economics, though to a limited extent in BA
courses and MAs in applied subjects.
In law, Dutch has no constitutional status,
and the legislation (passed in 1992) permitted
so many exceptions that it has had little real
effect. The Netherlands has a very open
economy and speaks a Germanic language
related to English and shared only with
Flemish-speaking Belgium and Surinam. This
makes achieving greater international
influence via Dutch unlikely. And knowledge
of English is widespread: the Education First
consultancy ranks it third out of 60 countries
in use of English.
The idea behind the promotion of English
in education is usually said to be the easy
transmission of knowledge that is
'international by definition'.
1
No language
has ever achieved such global predominance,
'if we're generous about what we mean by
English', as journalist Christopher Caldwell
writes.
2
In reality, the promotion of English in
universities is mostly about competitiveness
in a knowledge economy 'characterised by
the commercialisation at global level of the
products of research and teaching'.
3
The
Dutch journal Transfer claims that 'institutions
choose English on auto-pilot, because they
want to appear to be international players.
Universities… fear they'll be relegated to the
provincial league if they address only the
domestic market.'
The EU's Bologna Declaration of 1999 was
intended to create a single European domain
for higher education. But as the rector of
Maastricht University, Luc Soete, told me,
"Education has become an export product."
University authorities regard national
languages as an obstacle to student mobility,
like customs barriers, so creating a free trade
in English is another way for them to sell their
educational products.
Culture has not collapsed
Many French scientists believe that 'the
health of intellectual output from the
Netherlands, which doesn't impose any
linguistic restrictions, is proof that their
culture has not collapsed by opening up to
English',
4
and think France should follow suit.
Mind your English
AALAIN,
16/6/08
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