HBO students who progress to a university master’s degree miss out on years of basic grant compared to other master’s students. Radar, Avrotros’ consumer program, reported this in its broadcast on Monday evening.
Anyone who obtains a bachelor’s degree and then a master’s degree at higher professional education or university receives a basic grant for the entire duration of their studies, even if the master’s degree lasts several years. Students who obtain an HBO master’s degree after their university bachelor’s degree also receive the basic grant. “But if you visit university after college, you will be left out,” says Radar.
About 5,000 transfer students were affected by this rule last academic year, the program reports, citing figures from Statistics Netherlands (Central Bureau of Statistics). “In the 2023/2024 academic year they will miss out on 5,200 euros in basic grant,” Radar said.
Minister
Outgoing Minister of Education Robbert Dijkgraaf thinks it is ‘honestly difficult to explain’, he said in a response to the consumer program about these rules for which he himself is responsible. ‘You should be encouraged to do the master’s program that suits you,’ he says.
I honestly don’t think it’s easy to explain. You should be encouraged to do the master’s program that suits you
Robbert Dijkgraaf, Outgoing Minister of Education
Nevertheless, Dijkgraaf will not solve the problem himself, he says. “It is a very good point, but the next step in this is really for the next cabinet,” said the minister.
Basic grant
The basic grant will return to higher education from the 2023-2024 academic year and applies to all students, including those who have already started a study. The condition is that students are still entitled to student financing, or that they are within the number of years that the study officially lasts.
Students in higher education who live at home receive 110.30 euros per month. Students living away from home receive 274.90. For all students living away from home, an additional 164.30 euros per month will be added in the coming academic year due to the sharply increased costs of groceries and energy. A student in higher education who lives away from home will therefore receive almost 440 euros per month in the coming academic year.
Because the income limit for parents is being increased from around 55,000 euros to 70,000 euros, the new basic grant also means that students from the middle-income category are eligible for a supplementary grant. This depends on the income of the parents and amounts to a maximum of 416 euros per month.
For students who obtain their diploma within ten years, the grant will be converted into a gift. If they study longer, the student debt must be repaid. DUO takes the level of income into account.
No financial obstacles
The main objective of the student financing system is ‘to guarantee the financial accessibility of secondary vocational education and higher education and thus ensure that there are no insurmountable financial obstacles to studying’. Minister Dijkgraaf wrote this in the Explanatory Memorandum to the bill amending the Student Finance Act 2000 in connection with the reintroduction of the basic grant in higher education.
According to him, since the introduction of the basic grant in the mid-1980s, the number of students enrolled in higher education in the Netherlands has increased more than fivefold: from 154,033 registered students in 1983 to more than 817,000 in 2020.
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2023-09-18 16:55:33
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