Tuition fees rise in line with inflation. When the cost of groceries, clothes and a night out at the pub goes up, tuition fees are sure to follow – albeit with some delay.

This academic year, students are paying 2,314 euros. In 2024/2025, fees will rise to 2,530 euros, a result of the soaring inflation caused by the war in Ukraine. Energy prices in particular went through the roof.

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) recently announced the inflation rate for April, which completes the basis for calculating the tuition fees for the academic year 2025/2026. The ministry now takes the annual average from May until the end of April as the basis for this calculation.

2.8 percent

For that period as a whole, inflation was 2.8 percent, which means tuition fees from September 2025 are due to be 2,601 euros, to be precise. This could change but not by much, as the figures for March and April are still subject to minor adjustments.

Until 2022, the increase in fees was based on the inflation rate for the month of April alone. Before that time, rises in tuition fees had been relatively modest: varying between 22 and 71 euros. But when prices rose sharply in April 2022, politicians were alarmed to discover that tuition fees were about to shoot up by over 200 euros. 

This prospect led education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf to adapt the system so that the rise could be based on the average inflation rate over a whole year, leaving students less exposed to peaks and troughs. This measure kept the increase for 2023/2024 to 105 euros. 

In 2023, however, inflation did not ease off. As a result, tuition fees are still due to rise by more than 200 euros this September. And now that we are able to calculate average inflation over the last twelve months, we know that fees from September 2025 will hit 2,600 euros.

Reduction

Next academic year will also see the end of a 50 percent reduction in tuition fees for first-year students (and second-year teacher training students). This is linked to the reintroduction of the basic student grant. 

All these figures apply to the statutory fee for students who have not yet completed a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree. The government no longer subsidises second degrees, so graduates returning to higher education pay far higher institutional fees for their studies. Exceptions are made for those retraining to pursue a career in healthcare or teaching.