Every year, the Ministry of Education adjusts higher education tuition fees in line with inflation for the month of April. This year, inflation in April was almost 10 percent, which would have meant a sizeable tuition fee increase of 212 euros as of September 2023.

The actual increase will be less steep. Minister Dijkgraaf wants the annual increase to be less sensitive to the peaks and troughs of inflation. From now on, tuition fees will be adjusted based on the average annual inflation rate.

As a result, they will not increase by 212 euros next year, but by 105 euros, the Ministry of Education has announced. A significant rise, but less than feared.

Groceries and energy

“The Minister hears and understands the concerns of students about the rising costs of groceries and energy, among other things”, according to the ministry. It also stresses that the new method for adjusting tuition fees is not primarily aimed at improving students’ financial situation. Rather, the ministry states, Dijkgraaf wants to implement a technical improvement, “regardless of any purchasing power measures aimed at students”.

Given the high inflation rate, HOP predicted a sharp increase in tuition fees this past spring. At the time, several opposition parties called for a tuition fee freeze, but found no support among government parties.

Minister Dijkgraaf, however, proved sensitive to the opposition’s criticism, telling the House of Representatives that he wanted to limit this year’s tuition fee increase to around 50 to 60 euros. But he also stated that he wanted to give the issue more thought and was unwilling to make any hard commitments.

No more tuition fee reduction

Incidentally, the current tuition fee reduction for first-year students (and second-year students of teacher training programmes) will disappear in September 2024. From then on, these students will pay the full rate instead of half.

The change is part of a trade-off: the elimination of the fee reduction creates room for a small increase in the basic student grant. At the same time, more students will qualify for a supplementary grant. The basic student grant will return in September 2023.