Education

Red tape costs TU human capital

The 2003-04 academic year is proving to be the year of the visa hassle. TU foreign students and researchers are suffering from a bureaucratic Dutch visa system that can%t handle the university%s relentless drive toward internationization.

/strong>

If clever foreigners are seen as a key to preventing this country from becoming a second-rate “knowledge economy”, why, many people ask, is it so expensive, complicated, and time-consuming for foreigners to get visas to work or study in Delft, and why, moreover, should foreign PhDs and post-docs be forced to live in Holland alone for year before their partners and children are granted visas to join them?

For an aspiring “knowledge country”, the current visa system for foreign university students and researchers is, well, pretty dumb. Holland wants a prosperous technological future, yet the nation%s universities seem to be pulling one way, the IND (Immigration Service) and Ministry of Justice the other. The result: unyielding bureaucratic gridlock. Ironically, those suffering the most from this are the foreigners who were encouraged to come here as part of the solution to Holland%s shortage of highly-educated scientists and engineers.

Christine Meinhardt, of the TU%s Human Resource Management department, sees much wrong with the current visa system. ”Firstly, permit prices are a problem, especially for PhDs with families. In 2001, it cost e57 for a residence permit; today, it costs e430. Extending a permit costs e285, and that used to be free,” she says, adding that residence permits in other European countries are much cheaper.

Added to high permit prices is an often unreasonable amount of time that foreigners must wait for the IND to grant permits and visas. Part of the delay, particularly regarding family members of TU foreign personnel, is caused by an unyielding bureaucracy that refuses to make distinctions between family members of highly educated university personnel and unskilled asylum seekers. Moreover, a tightening of national asylum laws resulted in fewer asylum applications; consequently, the IND downsized. ”Fewer IND employees means there%s now an enormous backlog in the department, so visa applications take longer to process,” Meinhardt says. ”A lot of students who should’ve started at TU Delft two weeks ago still don’t have visas.” Meinhardt’s convinced that IND inefficiency and ”hard-headedness” on the government’s part regarding foreign professionals is ”subverting the country%s knowledge economy.”

Devastated

The old adage, “the devil is in the details” certainly applies to the IND’s visa system, and no bureaucratic detail is more devilish for TU foreigners than the one pertaining to visas for family members. Essentially, any non-EU foreign researcher or PhD accepting a position at TU Delft should expect to be separated from their spouses and children for one year, or even longer (see article on page X).

In this, Iranian PhD student Saeed Torkzaban’s experience exemplifies the difficulties foreigners face. Married for just one month before moving to Delft, Torkzaban expected his wife to receive a visa two months after his arrival in Holland. ”But when I arrived, the personnel office told me I first had to receive my own residence permit before I could apply for my wife%s visa.” After three months, Torkzaban received his residence permit, immediately applied for his wife%s visa, but then was devastated when he was told it would ”take between six and nine months” to be approved.

”My wife couldn’t believe this,” he recalls, ”because we knew other Iranians who had gone to other EU countries, and to Canada, and could bring their families with them.” After nine months, and a year living apart, Torkzaban’s wife was finally allowed to join her husband in Delft.

Johan Hendriks, of the TU’s personnel department, agrees that long visa delays are costing Delft valuable human capital. ”These visa procedures have made some scientists and researchers with outstanding reputations refuse to come here or forced them to leave again once they were here,” Hendriks says. ”The image of the university as an international partner and a valuable place to visit is damaged by these occurrences.” Indeed, the TU must hope that Iran hasn%t set a precedent that other countries will follow. ”Because of all the problems Iranian students and researchers have getting visas for Holland, Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology has decided to no longer send students to Holland,” Torkzaban says.

What, if anything, will be done to ease the bureaucratic burden on the TU’s foreigners remains to be seen. But TU Delft’s future is being jeopardized % after all, today’s PhDs and post-docs are tomorrow%s professors.

What’s certain, though, is that if Holland solves its visa problems quickly, Dutch universities have a great opportunity to gain ground on US universities, which, for decades, have attracted huge numbers of foreign students. Tough new US national-security measures enacted following the Sept. 11 attacks % including the requirement that foreign students undergo one-to-one interviews with US State Department consular officials in their home countries before being granted visas % mean entering the U.S. to study is increasingly difficult, as a recent Associated Press news article noted: ”Some of the estimated 550,000 foreign graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who help staff the nation’s laboratories may take their brainpower to countries where visa hurdles are less rigorous.”

The hope is that Holland quickly resolves its visa problems. But so far, the only development is the news that Dutch Premier Balkenende will chair a special %Innovation Platform, which, among other issues, will examine the visa problem for foreign students and researchers. ”We%ve put emphasis on the importance of a general exemption for university-employees and their families,” Hendriks says.

The 2003-04 academic year is proving to be the year of the visa hassle. TU foreign students and researchers are suffering from a bureaucratic Dutch visa system that can%t handle the university%s relentless drive toward internationization.

If clever foreigners are seen as a key to preventing this country from becoming a second-rate “knowledge economy”, why, many people ask, is it so expensive, complicated, and time-consuming for foreigners to get visas to work or study in Delft, and why, moreover, should foreign PhDs and post-docs be forced to live in Holland alone for year before their partners and children are granted visas to join them?

For an aspiring “knowledge country”, the current visa system for foreign university students and researchers is, well, pretty dumb. Holland wants a prosperous technological future, yet the nation%s universities seem to be pulling one way, the IND (Immigration Service) and Ministry of Justice the other. The result: unyielding bureaucratic gridlock. Ironically, those suffering the most from this are the foreigners who were encouraged to come here as part of the solution to Holland%s shortage of highly-educated scientists and engineers.

Christine Meinhardt, of the TU%s Human Resource Management department, sees much wrong with the current visa system. ”Firstly, permit prices are a problem, especially for PhDs with families. In 2001, it cost e57 for a residence permit; today, it costs e430. Extending a permit costs e285, and that used to be free,” she says, adding that residence permits in other European countries are much cheaper.

Added to high permit prices is an often unreasonable amount of time that foreigners must wait for the IND to grant permits and visas. Part of the delay, particularly regarding family members of TU foreign personnel, is caused by an unyielding bureaucracy that refuses to make distinctions between family members of highly educated university personnel and unskilled asylum seekers. Moreover, a tightening of national asylum laws resulted in fewer asylum applications; consequently, the IND downsized. ”Fewer IND employees means there%s now an enormous backlog in the department, so visa applications take longer to process,” Meinhardt says. ”A lot of students who should’ve started at TU Delft two weeks ago still don’t have visas.” Meinhardt’s convinced that IND inefficiency and ”hard-headedness” on the government’s part regarding foreign professionals is ”subverting the country%s knowledge economy.”

Devastated

The old adage, “the devil is in the details” certainly applies to the IND’s visa system, and no bureaucratic detail is more devilish for TU foreigners than the one pertaining to visas for family members. Essentially, any non-EU foreign researcher or PhD accepting a position at TU Delft should expect to be separated from their spouses and children for one year, or even longer (see article on page X).

In this, Iranian PhD student Saeed Torkzaban’s experience exemplifies the difficulties foreigners face. Married for just one month before moving to Delft, Torkzaban expected his wife to receive a visa two months after his arrival in Holland. ”But when I arrived, the personnel office told me I first had to receive my own residence permit before I could apply for my wife%s visa.” After three months, Torkzaban received his residence permit, immediately applied for his wife%s visa, but then was devastated when he was told it would ”take between six and nine months” to be approved.

”My wife couldn’t believe this,” he recalls, ”because we knew other Iranians who had gone to other EU countries, and to Canada, and could bring their families with them.” After nine months, and a year living apart, Torkzaban’s wife was finally allowed to join her husband in Delft.

Johan Hendriks, of the TU’s personnel department, agrees that long visa delays are costing Delft valuable human capital. ”These visa procedures have made some scientists and researchers with outstanding reputations refuse to come here or forced them to leave again once they were here,” Hendriks says. ”The image of the university as an international partner and a valuable place to visit is damaged by these occurrences.” Indeed, the TU must hope that Iran hasn%t set a precedent that other countries will follow. ”Because of all the problems Iranian students and researchers have getting visas for Holland, Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology has decided to no longer send students to Holland,” Torkzaban says.

What, if anything, will be done to ease the bureaucratic burden on the TU’s foreigners remains to be seen. But TU Delft’s future is being jeopardized % after all, today’s PhDs and post-docs are tomorrow%s professors.

What’s certain, though, is that if Holland solves its visa problems quickly, Dutch universities have a great opportunity to gain ground on US universities, which, for decades, have attracted huge numbers of foreign students. Tough new US national-security measures enacted following the Sept. 11 attacks % including the requirement that foreign students undergo one-to-one interviews with US State Department consular officials in their home countries before being granted visas % mean entering the U.S. to study is increasingly difficult, as a recent Associated Press news article noted: ”Some of the estimated 550,000 foreign graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who help staff the nation’s laboratories may take their brainpower to countries where visa hurdles are less rigorous.”

The hope is that Holland quickly resolves its visa problems. But so far, the only development is the news that Dutch Premier Balkenende will chair a special %Innovation Platform, which, among other issues, will examine the visa problem for foreign students and researchers. ”We%ve put emphasis on the importance of a general exemption for university-employees and their families,” Hendriks says.

Editor Redactie

Do you have a question or comment about this article?

delta@tudelft.nl

Comments are closed.