BM 65 – European students support the fight against the implementation of study-reform in Denmark
Students of Europe, as represented by the 47 national unions of students that are members of the European Students’ Union (ESU), support the recent protests of Danish students against the implementation of the ‘study acceleration reform’ (fremdriftsreformen), which is a part of the Danish grant reform.
We fear that the implementation of the reform will have a tremendous negative effect on Danish students and the quality of their education. We also fear that more students will be expelled or drop out of universities because they fail to comply with the new study activity demands that don’t take students’ lives and own initiatives during their studies into account.
The reform will also deprive students of their rights to independently organise their studies and extra-curricular activities that improve their skills. We oppose the view of Danish students as lazy and not responsible for their own education that has been the undertone of the arguments posed by the Danish government and others in favour of the reform.
We also strongly oppose the Danish government’s view of students as instruments and human capital that are to be dispatched through higher education as fast as possible and out to a labour market that at the moment sees sky high unemployment rates, especially for graduates.
That is why we urge the Danish minister for education, Morten Østergaard, to call in the coalition partners of the reform and, as suggested by the National Union of Students in Denmark (DSF), revise the reform.
