Investment in the sector is on the up in some countries. Why?

There’s no end of university austerity. In France, for example, the 2026 budget shows a headline increase of about 1.8 per cent for higher education and research.

But France Universités, the presidents’ body, says the uplift is largely absorbed by unfunded pension and health protection obligations the state is dumping on institutions.

The result is that many universities are now adopting deficit budgets, and staff unions describe the situation as “toujours plus de charges, toujours pas assez de moyens” – always more charges, never enough resources.

And when governments aren’t trying to make universities more efficient, they’re turning their attention to students.

The latest figures from Eurostat show that more than one in four young Europeans aged 15 to 29 were working and studying at the same time in 2024 – with rates highest in the Netherlands (74.3 per cent), Denmark (56.4 per cent) and Germany (45.8 per cent), and rising in several other member states as student finance fails to keep pace with costs.

Greece has now moved from announcing limits on study duration to actually removing students from university registries – 308,605 admitted before 2017 to four-year programmes were deregistered as of 31 December 2025, with five-year and six-year programmes to follow.

The government frames this as aligning Greece with “normal” European expectations about time-to-degree – critics argue the policy doesn’t account for the disruption of the financial crisis years.

And in Belgium’s Flanders region, education minister Zuhal Demir is reportedly preparing measures that would go further than the existing “leerkrediet” system – potentially abolishing it entirely in favour of stricter progression rules. Student organisations have flagged the distributional effects on students who work, commute, or have caring responsibilities.

Dutch reversal

But there is some good news.

In the Netherlands, the recently agreed coalition government formed by Democrats 66 (D66), the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), and the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) has explicitly reversed the planned cuts to education and research that were embedded in the previous demissionary budget.

The coalition published its agreement under the title “Aan de slag – bouwen aan een beter Nederland” on 30 January 2026, and the headline financial commitment is a structural €1.5 billion per year for education and science.

This is being hailed as a historic step – though it isn’t wholly new money on top of an existing baseline – a significant share restores funding lines that would otherwise have been withdrawn under the outgoing Schoof cabinet’s budget.

But university leaders have stressed that this matters as much as the cash total itself, because it reduces uncertainty around staffing, PhD recruitment, and infrastructure investment.

The agreement also walks back policy measures that would have constrained international student recruitment – earlier proposals to sharply restrict English-taught programmes have been softened or removed.

Cuts to higher education have been scrapped – for student organisations, the positive reaction is tied to direct student-facing measures – the national student body ISO highlights a higher “living away from home” grant, mandatory internship compensation, and money going back into education.

LSVb, the student union federation, positions it as proof that protest and strike action worked. The political context matters though – this is a minority cabinet holding 66 of 150 seats, so delivery remains contingent on parliamentary support and subsequent budget decisions.

Irish eyes

Meanwhile in Ireland, the government has published what it’s describing as the largest capital investment package for the tertiary education and research system in the state’s history.

The €4.55 billion Tertiary Sector Capital Investment Plan covers 2026 to 2030 and is meant to upgrade campus infrastructure, research facilities, and capacity across universities, technological universities, and other tertiary providers.

The envelope is split broadly into two streams – around €2.1 billion for higher and further education infrastructure, and approximately €2.45 billion for research and innovation infrastructure covering large-scale facilities, advanced equipment, and national research platforms.

There’s also a dedicated €750 million INSPIRE programme for research infrastructure, designed to replace ageing equipment and strengthen Ireland’s participation in international research collaborations.

The Irish Universities Association welcomed Budget 2026 for confirming substantial research investment, and university leadership groups have emphasised the opportunity to modernise outdated infrastructure and address long-standing gaps.

Student organisations have been quieter on the capital plan – they’ve tended to focus on cost-of-living measures, fees, and accommodation instead.

What this tells us

In the Netherlands, the coalition has leaned heavily on the language of “choosing knowledge” – de coalitie kiest voor kennis – and positioned international students and researchers as contributors to the Dutch knowledge economy rather than as a cost to be managed.

The reversal of cuts to English-taught programmes is explicitly framed as a talent retention measure.

In Ireland, the justification is more straightforwardly economic – competitiveness, talent development, regional growth, and keeping Ireland plugged into international research networks.

The INSPIRE programme is presented as essential for replacing ageing equipment and staying in the game on advanced manufacturing and deep-tech.

But the strings are worth noting.

The Dutch deal comes from a minority cabinet holding 66 of 150 seats, so every budget line will need to be negotiated through parliament – and much of the €1.5 billion restores what was about to be taken away rather than representing genuine new capacity.

The Irish investment is overwhelmingly capital – buildings, equipment, infrastructure – and doesn’t touch the recurrent funding pressures on staff pay, workload, or core teaching that universities have been warning about for years.

In other words – even where governments are choosing to invest, they’re doing so on terms that prioritise economic return and international competitiveness over the kind of sustained, boring, recurrent funding that keeps the lights on.