Tuition fees go up by €105 – Algemeen Nijmegen Studentenblad

Tuition fees for the academic year 2023-2024 will be €105 higher than this year. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) initially wanted to cap the increase at 60 euros. However, the Consortium of Universities of Applied Sciences (VH) and Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) opposed this proposal.

The tuition fee for the academic year 2023-2024 is €2,314. This is an increase of 105 euros compared to this academic year. Usually, the tuition fee amount is based on the inflation figures for the month of April. Last year the inflation rate was 9.6%. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science wanted to mitigate this increase using the average inflation of the past three years, but the university organizations VH and UNL opposed this proposal. In the end, it was decided to work with annual average inflation. This average is much higher than the average for the past three years combined, but lower than the average for April alone. The decision was not stipulated in amending the law.

280 million euros

The umbrella organizations VH and UNL strongly opposed the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science’s proposal to base the amount of tuition fees on inflation in the past three years. “The difference between taking the three-year average and the April average is more than 280 million euros for universities and universities of applied sciences,” says Robin Boilart, spokesman for the university organization UNL. “For universities specifically, it will be around 113 million euros.” He explains that higher education is under financial pressure and that this decision would have made matters worse. “The workload will increase more and there will be less scope for research in universities.”

Puylaert says UNL has discussed the proposal with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science at an official level. Ministry reached an average of one year. This means that higher education costs will rise, but not as much as the three-year average. He says that UNL understands the decision. “Basing the amount solely on April’s inflation numbers would have been the most financially beneficial option for us, but in these difficult times, you also want to spare students huge costs.” Puylaert notes that UNL hopes to hold it for years to come. This way we know where we stand. We think this is a good middle ground and a realistic inflation correction.