Lack of money: it has been the common thread through the average student life for many years. Generations of students made ends meet with a messy mix of side jobs, loans and cheap meals. But rising energy costs, high rents, inflation and mounting student debts are turning the paltry romance of the past into a grim clear-cut for more and more students.
According to Ama Boahene, president of the National Student Union (LSVb), this generation of students has to deal with ‘bad luck, bad luck, bad luck’. As for other low-income earners, the largest expense items for students are rent and groceries. Both are getting more and more expensive.
In 2021, 40 percent of students were concerned about their financial situation, according to research by the Trimbos Institute. Since then, living costs have only risen, with rising energy bills the latest bite out of student wallets.
Reporting point
While other minima are entitled to compensation of 800 euros, students are explicitly excluded. ‘Students lose 50 to 80 euros per month. If your meager income is also borrowed, that is really a blow’, says Boahene. The government’s reasoning is that parents of students can help bear the burden. Nonsense, Boahene thinks: ‘There are plenty of parents who can’t even pay their own energy bill.’
She therefore thinks that hundreds of thousands of students will get into trouble, so the LSVb set up a hotline.
Marit Heinen (20), third-year student of public administration and organizational sciences at Utrecht University, rang the bell at the LSVb. She and her four housemates received an annual statement of 1,200 euros in May. The monthly gas costs have also increased from 188 to 288 euros. ‘I am very angry that we do not receive an energy allowance, while we are receiving less than the minimum. In the meantime, we have to cough up as much as other households.’
Heinen borrows an average of 500 euros per month, depending on how much she can work. As a side job she supervises the self-working hours at a secondary school. Until recently, she managed to get by with the average 400 euros that she earns, but her parents have been helping out with 100 euros a month since three months. An ‘inflation bonus’.
‘Balance search’
Such a contribution is becoming increasingly common. In 2017, slightly more than half of the students received a contribution from their parents, in 2021 this was more than two-thirds. If parents contribute, this amounts to an average of 211 euros per month. In 2017 that was 165 euros.
‘Students whose parents cannot contribute, for example, do not transfer from MBO to HBO, but go straight to work,’ says Boahene. ‘The number of people who are going to do a university master’s is also declining, and more and more students continue to live at home.’
Heijnen finds it perfectly normal to work alongside her studies. “But I really can’t work any more hours.” A thesis must also be written. Her study results remain stable, but she is increasingly canceling social activities in order to work. ‘The balance in my life is lost.’
She does not want to increase her loan. “Then I might not have money problems now, but I will in ten years.” Those worries about the future are not uncommon: half of the students are concerned about their future financial situation, the Trimbos Institute concluded in 2021.
Kneading
According to Boahene, students work an average of 14 hours a week. ‘Meanwhile, universities and colleges expect you to be studying full-time.’ Working more to keep up with rising living costs is easier said than done, according to the LSVb chairman.
That also applies to Juliette Kleinjan (19). In addition to her studies Cultural Analysis at Erasmus University College, she also studies illustration at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. ‘I worked at the start of my student days, but that was impossible to combine with two studies.’
And so it is skimping. In addition to her loan of almost 1,000 euros per month, she receives an additional 100 euros from her parents. After deducting fixed costs, she is left with just over 200 euros. When she’s really broke, her parents sometimes come to the rescue.
poignant
‘I check my bill almost every day these days,’ she says. ‘Can I have a cup of coffee on the terrace with a friend, or do I have to do it at home? I make the most of it, but it’s so limiting.’ She finds it unrealistic that students are expected to keep up with rising costs. ‘How are we going to get by when everything becomes more expensive, while we can’t borrow more money?’
It is especially distressing that students whose parents can contribute little or nothing are doubly affected, says Boahene of the LSVb. They incur sky-high debts and it is more difficult for them to do an internship or go on an exchange.
The same goes for Kleinjan. “All my life I’ve dreamed of going on an exchange to art school in New York,” she says. She would have to save now to cover the costs. ‘I can’t, I can’t even make ends meet. It is terrible to put aside such a wish because groceries have become too expensive.’
more dependent
Sam van Twisk (28) is in the final phase of her sociology study at Erasmus University. She borrows a maximum of 450 euros after fixed costs. When she can’t make ends meet, her mother jumps in. ‘I had hoped to be a lot more independent. Instead, I just become more dependent. That’s so oppressive.’
She has been looking for a new home with her boyfriend for some time now. They currently live in two small studios in the same building. One serves as a bedroom, the other as a living room. “I’m not confident we’ll find a normal home. Nowadays a net wage of three times the rent is asked and that is not possible with these rents.’
Van Twisk is not unlucky, she thinks. On the contrary, she is grateful that she has a safety net. What would she do if she weren’t so cramped? “My boyfriend is from Pakistan and I’ve never been there, so we’d like to go there someday. But yes, that is really not an issue for the time being.’
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