Tuition fees for refugee students remain sky-high
Refugee students without residence permits must pay thousands of euros in tuition. This will remain the case, a narrow majority in the House of Representatives decided Tuesday. Universities and colleges are disappointed.
If refugees are studying at a college or university while waiting for a residence permit, they are classified as “international students.” This applies, for example, to Syrians and Ukrainians who have come here.
These students come from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), so they must pay many thousands of euros annually in “institutional tuition fees.” For refugees from Ukraine, universities and colleges recently reached a solution at their own expense: they were allowed to study at the normal tuition rate. But there should actually be a structural solution, the institutions believe.
The same fate befalls young people who grew up here without papers, for example, because their parents came here illegally. They have sometimes lived in the Netherlands all their lives, but are unable to study here at the normal tuition rate.
A magnet effect
Minister Dijkgraaf doesn’t want to change this, he previously announced. He thinks that low tuition fees can have “a magnet effect” on refugees, partly because there is so much English-language education available in the Netherlands. Plus, according to him, the Cabinet is working on a “fundamental reorientation of asylum policy.” He does not want to derail that process with a decision on tuition fees for asylum seekers.
GroenLinks and Dijkgraaf’s own party D66 disagree with his position and submitted a motion accordingly. Refugees are here out of necessity, the two parties write. Unlike international students, refugees cannot choose where to study.
Without papers
The same applies to undocumented young people who were born and raised here, the two parties believe. “The education of these students should not depend on the goodwill of educational institutions,” the motion states. They, too, must pay the legal tuition fee.
This issue has split the coalition parties. Last Tuesday, VVD and CDA voted against the motion, along with opposition parties PVV, FvD, JA21 and Group Van Haga. Together, they have a narrow majority of 76 seats. The government parties ChristenUnie and D66 supported the motion, along with the rest of the opposition.
The motion had already been submitted in February by Lisa Westerveld (GroenLinks) and Paul van Meenen (D66). “We put forward the motion then, hoping that there would be an agreement behind the scenes,” Westerveld said. “But so far, this has not been the case, and I regularly hear harrowing stories.” That’s why they put the motion to a vote last Tuesday anyway.
Unsustainable
University Association UNL and the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences are disappointed. According to them, the situation of refugee students is already dire enough. Last year, institutions reduced tuition fees for refugees from Ukraine at their own expense, they write in a joint response. “But educational institutions cannot continue to do that. The decision on the fees we charge refugee students belongs to the central government as far as we are concerned.”
