House fears the suction effect of basic grant
The entire Dutch Lower House thinks it’s good that the basic grant will be restored. But some parties are worried: will the Dutch student grant soon attract even more foreign students?
Last Tuesday, the entire Lower House supported the return of the basic grant. This exists not only for Dutch students but also for some foreign students. A majority of the Lower House appears to be concerned about this. European students can get the basic grant if they have lived here for five years, but also if they work here at least 56 hours a month, for example. This means that there are more possibilities.
International students
VVD MP El Yassini asked about the consequences during last week’s plenary debate. He does not want the grant of “Juan from Madrid who will study philosophy in the Netherlands” to be at the expense of the arrangements for Dutch “Sjon who wants to become an electrician or solar panel installer.”
He submitted three motions on this subject with his colleague Peters (CDA). Should the rules for foreign students and their study financing not be tightened, they want to know. All three motions were adopted on Tuesday.
At the expense of the rest
First, the MPs want to know how many European students will soon come to the Netherlands, now that the basic grant is being introduced here. After all, if there are too many, it will be at the expense of the rest of the OCW budget. Plus, there is a danger that students will apply for study financing in two countries at the same time. This is not allowed, but no one is checking whether it’s being done. The motion asks Education Minister Dijkgraaf to come up with a plan to prevent the financing of double studies.
Education Minister Dijkgraaf said this last week that other European countries often cannot release student data because of privacy laws, but that he wants to “put information exchange on the agenda” in Europe.
Income limit
And what about the supplementary grant? You can get that scholarship if your parents earn less than €70,000 per year. This income limit was chosen to support middle-income families as well. But is this income limit right for other European countries? Maybe €70,000 in a student’s country of origin is not a middle income, but a high income. Shouldn't you take that into account when awarding the supplementary grant?
“I think it's a creative idea,” Dijkgraaf responded. “I honestly have never seen it before, not even internationally. Usually, people have uniform standards for where the income limit of parents is.” He saw some difficulties but was willing to look into them.
So all three motions passed, with varying majorities. A study on the arrival of European students, for example, received no support from PvdA, GroenLinks, Volt, and BBB, but did receive support from SP and Party for the Animals.
The motion on the income limit passed with a narrow majority of 83 votes. Among others, D66 and PVV voted against it, while BIJ1 and Party for the Animals agreed.
