The government is keen to compensate students during the coronavirus crisis, which is why it is cutting tuition fees in half for the next academic year. For most students, this means that instead of paying €2,168, their studies for that year will come to just €1,084.

Initially, first-year students were not included in this scheme, as they would only have paid half the usual rate anyway. The scheme is also intended to compensate for delayed studies, which would not have affected first-years.

However, a new Q&A published by the ministry tells a different story. Next year – and only for that year – the statutory tuition fees will be reduced to €1,084. As first-years already pay half the statutory rate, they will pay just €542.

“I didn’t know”

“Oh, I didn’t know that”, said chairperson of the Dutch Student Union (LSVb), Lyle Muns, who welcomed the decision. “The ministry had given me a different message, but this is good news. Those first-years still have a lot of time ahead of them to grow their student loans, so this will be a real help. And the coronavirus crisis has had a huge impact on them, too.”

A spokesperson from the ministry was keen to stress that this is not a new decision, but rather an expression of the existing desire to halve students’ tuition fees for the coming year.

There had indeed been an earlier review of whether first-year students (who always pay half price) could be excluded from the scheme, but that would have been difficult in practice, and the ministry also believes that it is fair to include first-years in the discount.

100 million euros

This decision will be worth between 85 million and 100 million euros, depending on how many freshmen there are. Last year, 65,000 freshmen began their studies at university and 119,000 started at universities of applied sciences, but those numbers were unusually high.

It is not only first-years who will pay half of the already-halved rate: the same applies to second-year students in teacher training programmes, who will also pay just €542 for the coming academic year.

Pre-master’s students starting a bridging program between their bachelor’s and master’s degree programs will also be better off, as they will pay no more than the statutory rate of €1,084. Their fees may even be lower, at the discretion of their institute of higher education.

The reduction in tuition fees is a one-off scheme: students will only be eligible to pay this low rate for the academic year 2021/2022.