In recent years, ambitious students have been shocked by a series of measures that severely limited their opportunities for development. The flagships of the Ministry of Education had become the late student fine and the institutional tuition fee, both introduced with the intention of reducing the costs of higher education. Almost everyone who has any knowledge of studying knows that it doesn’t work that way. The fine for late students has now been abolished. What about the institutional tuition fees?
What is the institutional tuition fee?
Normally, universities must adhere to a statutory tuition fee rate. This means that students who follow a private course should never be asked to pay more than a certain maximum tuition fee, which is somewhere between 1700 and 1800 euros for a full-time course and slightly lower if you study part-time. When you, as a student, determine your diploma, whether this is a bachelor’s or master’s degree in HBO or WO, your university or college will receive a subsidy from the government. It was
already the case that they only receive this amount if a student graduates within a certain period. Since the 2012-2013 academic year, the university or college only receives this subsidy if it is your first course at that level (after 1990). For example, if you have already completed a bachelor’s degree in communications and you subsequently want to do a bachelor’s degree in law, the institutional tuition fee applies to you. This also applies if you want to do a second master’s degree or if you have completed a first HBO bachelor’s degree and want to continue with a university bachelor’s degree. Only certain courses in education or healthcare are excluded from this scheme. For example, if you have first completed a master’s degree in English literature and then want to do a master’s degree that leads to a teaching qualification for secondary education, you can study for the statutory tuition fee. This also applies, for example, to a course such as HBO nursing.
Fine for late students abolished
Another unpopular rule was the fine for late students. If you were to delay and take longer than four years to complete your bachelor’s degree or more than two years to complete your master’s degree (or longer than three years for a research master’s degree), you would have to pay a fine of 3,000 euros per year. You will also lose your right to an OV student card. A large group of students also paid this fine in September 2012. There was good news for this group in October 2012: the late student fine has been abolished. Anyone who has already paid the fine will get their money back as soon as possible. This fate was finally sealed in the House of Representatives on October 9, 2012. The coalition that supported this measure is too small to maintain it.
Will the institutional tuition fees for second studies also be abolished?
The institutional tuition fee is a very painful measure, especially for people who have not been able to take it into account in their planning. Take the mathematics student who minored in economics and discovered that he would actually like to study economics. If he had decided a few years ago to first complete his bachelor’s degree in mathematics, many would probably have called him a sensible boy. A diploma in his pocket and no more fear of having to repay the performance-related grant to DUO because he did not receive his diploma within the set period. Now he probably regrets it. With his mathematics degree, it is difficult for him to find a job that suits him, while there are plenty of vacancies in economics. That dream is unattainable for him unless he moves abroad. It is even more painful for those who actually wanted to study law as a second education. For Dutch Law, there is not even the option to study abroad, that is only possible in the Netherlands.
The reasoning of the makers of the law is that anyone who wants more will have to pay for it themselves. Not a strange attitude in itself, but it is painful for those who were unable to take it into account and now look back with regret on their studies, which they should have stopped earlier to switch but did not do so because they opted for certainty or even because they were afraid of the late student fine. It now appears to be unjustified!
The question now on the minds of many – especially unemployed academics who would like to retrain – is whether institutional tuition fees for second studies will now also be abolished. The only political party that had included this point in its election program was D66. This party is not part of the (probable) new government. In response to a question from the undersigned, the PvdA also indicated that it is in favor of abolishing the institutional tuition fee and GroenLinks also shares this opinion. However, these parties do not form a majority and among the many measures that emerged from the coalition negotiations, it does not appear that this measure was the subject of discussion with Rutte and Samson. Hopefuls for a second education will therefore have to be patient or choose their money’s worth and possibly move abroad before the feared hole in their CV becomes too big.
Institutional tuition fees and abroad
What many do not know is that there is also a kind of institutional tuition fee scheme in England. England is a popular country when it comes to studying. However, the EQL rule, or Equivalent or Lower Qualifications, has applied here since 2012/2013 . This means that if you want to take a course that leads to a title that is lower or equal to a title you already possess – i.e. a second MA or a MSc after an LLM – you are no longer entitled to public funds such as loans. and government grants. It does not matter where you obtained that previous qualification. An MA in England after an MA obtained in the Netherlands can be quite expensive and is only possible if you can pay the tuition fees in full yourself or you manage to obtain a private scholarship.
Such a scheme does not (yet) apply in other European countries and in America this is not an issue at all. It is a fact that there is more and more discussion about the costs of foreign students who return home after obtaining their diploma and therefore hardly contribute to the economy, while they do cost money. It is therefore not very unlikely that a discussion on this subject will arise in other European countries in the not too distant future.