An estimated 20,000 students, lecturers and other university and college staff took part in a demonstration in the centre of The Hague on Monday in protest at the government’s planned cuts to spending on education.

The demonstrators, who were joined by MPs, including D66 leader Rob Jetten and GroenLinks-PvdA chief Frans Timmermans, marched from the Malieveld near central station to the education ministry and back.

The cuts, said Thijs Roovers, chairman of teaching union AOb, “will lead to a loss of knowledge within our society.”

“This is not what we want,” he said. “It will also lead to a loss of jobs. The cuts are so big that they represent the equivalent of two hbo colleges or a large university.”

The current government wants to cut €1 billion from spending on higher education, including stop funding grants for young researchers.

MPs are due to debate the education cuts later this week and, according to the Volkskrant, there is now a majority against the plans in the upper house of parliament. The senate earlier put paid to plans to increase value added tax on culture, sports and books.

Floor Vermeulen, mayor of Wageningen and chairman of the Dutch knowledge city network, said the cuts are “extremely irresponsible” and “damaging for the future of the Netherlands.”

Leiden and Utrecht universities have already said they are cutting back on some  courses to save money.

“We are here not only to fight against the cuts, but also to fight for our future. And that fight is not won with one protest,” Abdelkader Karbache, president of student union LSVb told the crowd.

In October it emerged that most of the Netherlands’ 13 universities have fallen on the latest Times Higher Education ranking, and none now remain in the top 50.

Delft University of Technology remains the highest-ranked Dutch institution but has fallen from 48th to 56th place. In total, eight universities have gone down in the rankings, while Amsterdam has risen from 61 to 58 and Leiden from 77 to 73.