Students during the introduction days last summer. Photo: Anna den Hartog The government wishes to support students during this corona crisis. Their tuition fees will be slashed by half, which results in a fee of 1084 euros, down from the normal 2168 euros for most students.
Originally, first-year students, who already pay only half of the regular fee, appeared to remain unaffected by this profitable measure. The provision is meant to cushion the financial effects of delays, which first-year students will not have incurred yet.
But a new Q&A (links to Dutch content) released by the ministry states differently. The regulatory tuition fee has been lowered to 1084 euros. This is a one-off measure. Fist-year students pay half the regulatory fee, which amounts to 542 euros.
Good news
‘Oh, I wasn’t aware of this’, says Lyle Muns, chair of the National Student Union, excitedly. ‘The ministry told me something different at first, but this is excellent news. The first-year students have a long period of student loans ahead of them, so this is certainly something they can use. And they too, are severely impacted by the corona crisis.’
A spokesperson of the ministry stresses that this is not a new decision. It is merely the practical implementation of the desire to reduce tuition fees for students by half for the coming year, he states. Previously, there was a move to see whether first-year students (whose fees are already half that of other students) could be exempted from the measure. However, this proved quite complicated, and the ministry felt it would be only fair that they, too, receive a reduction.
100 miljoen euro
The implementation of this measure costs between 85 and 100 million euros, depending on the number of first-year students. Last year, 65 thousand first-year students enrolled at universities and a further 119 thousand at university colleges. However, these were unusually high numbers.
Transfer students, who receive extra tuition in between the bachelors and masters programme, benefit. They will pay no more than the regulatory tuition fee. Less is also possible; this is left at the discretion of the educational institute.
The lower fees are a one-off provision and apply exclusively to the 2021/2022 academic year.