The loan system will be abolished from 2023 and the basic grant will return in its place. That sounds good, but the students under the student loan system are not helped by this. The cabinet is allocating 1 billion euros to meet this group of students. According to Amsterdammers Emma Fuchs and Merel Tames, both present at the protest on Saturday, this is far too little: “It really makes no difference to me”
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Merel started studying in Amsterdam in 2017: “My parents earned too much to qualify for a supplementary grant, but not enough to support all their three children financially.” Merel felt a lot of pressure due to the borrowing, which made her student life much less smooth than hoped: “It gave me sleepless nights and a lot of stress. When I was working, I felt like a bad student. But when I studied a lot, I thought I again to my fault.”
The National Student Union (LSVB) hopes to be able to organize the largest student protest of recent years next Saturday. “The goal is full compensation for a basic grant for a period of their entire studies, including for students who may not have borrowed,” said chair Ama Boahene. Merel never thought about this as much as now: “I had almost resigned myself to it, until I heard about this new plan.”
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“For banks it might be safer to give a mortgage to students before or after me, they have no debts”
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For Emma, it is mainly about the situation after her studies. “There is such a large group that will soon be excluded from society. I see no chance to buy a house in the city where I was born and raised.” The study generation before and after this group is financially more advantageous. “It is perhaps much safer for banks to give people without debt a mortgage. And that only because they started studying a little earlier or later than we did.”
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“A compensation is quite nice, but to be honest it feels like bullying with this amount. It is of no use to you,” says Emma. “For my fault, that is a drop in the ocean.” Converted from one thousand to three thousand euros per student would be released as compensation. According to many students, a better solution is to apply a basic grant retroactively. Merel also thinks that: “I want to be treated equally as students before and after me.”
On Saturday, the compensation protest will start at 1 p.m. on Museumplein. After a short program a procession runs through the city center. The organization expects to finish at the Museumplein again at 5 p.m.
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