Students could get €40m from scrapped loan interest cap
After the cabinet dropped its promised 2.5% cap on student loan interest, parties in the Tweede Kamer want the money left over to pay for refunds for vocational (mbo) students and a higher basic grant.
Parties in parliament want the €40m freed up after the cabinet dropped its 2.5% cap on student loan interest to be spent on students. In a motion, they propose using most of it to refund automatically part of the tuition and course fees of mbo students who leave their programme early.
Education minister Rianne Letschert (D66) scrapped the cap last week. She says it would cost the state at least €160m a year, because with higher interest rates the state must pay more to keep student loan interest at a maximum of 2.5%.
The cabinet does not want to make the extra money available. Letschert says she would then have to cut other education and research spending, and she thinks the risk of costs rising further is too great.
The motion says €40m cannot guarantee “a substantial interest measure”. The parties estimate the refunds for early leavers at €30m a year. The rest is to go to an extra rise in the basic grant (basisbeurs) for students who do not live with their parents. It would start in study year 2028–2029, on top of the increase the cabinet has already announced.
The parties ask the cabinet to set out the plans in the Voorjaarsnota, the spring budget update, next spring. In the debate, the Tweede Kamer also asked for extra documents on how the cabinet made its decision.
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mbo (middelbaar beroepsonderwijs)
Senior secondary vocational education (mbo) is the hands-on vocational track that Dutch students usually enter after secondary school, with programmes at several qualification levels for jobs in fields such as care, technology, business and hospitality. Students enrol at a vocational college and pay tuition and course fees for their programme, which is why changes to these costs affect them directly.
Voorjaarsnota
The Voorjaarsnota is the Dutch cabinet's spring budget update, sent to the Tweede Kamer each year in spring. It sets out the government's changes to the state budget, including how extra money is spent or how gaps are covered, and it is one of the main moments when Parliament debates and asks for changes to the budget plans.