Statutory tuition for the upcoming academic year would have been pegged at €2,168. But because the coronavirus crisis is dragging on longer than was expected, even after all this time, students are still having the lion’s share of their classes from behind a laptop. In mitigation, the government is gifting them one year of their study programme at a 50 percent fee reduction after the summer.

Considerably higher

The hope is of course that the crisis will pass quickly and such a measure will not be needed ever again. In that case, tuition for the 2022-2023 academic year will be considerably higher: students will have to shell out €2,209, the government announced in the Government Gazette.

The additional €41 is a bigger increase than was announced last year (€25). But it’s less than the year before, when the fees for full-time students went up by €60.

Are these arbitrary amounts? Certainly not. Increases to statutory tuition fees are determined each year on the basis of the so-called consumer-price index issued by Statistics Netherlands. The consumer-price index indicates the average costs of goods and services, such as groceries, clothing, rent, petrol, insurance and hairdressers.

Shoes

In April the prices were 1.9 percent higher than last year, according to Statistics Netherlands. Changes in the price of certain items like motor fuel, electricity, natural gas, clothing and shoes had “an upward effect” on inflation. If things continue at this rate, in twenty years or so students will be paying well over €3,000.

Incidentally, not everyone will be paying the same fee rate. First-year students had been granted a 50 percent reduction in statutory tuition even before the coronavirus crisis, as had second-year students in teacher training programmes. So in the coming academic year they will be paying 50 percent of 50 percent.