Still institutional rate for refugee student
Refugee students without residence permits will continue to have to pay institutional tuition fees in the coming years, a narrow majority in the Dutch Parliament decided on Tuesday.
Students awaiting a residence permit are considered ‘international students’, which means that they are not eligible for the statutory tuition fee, which amounts to 2,314 euros this year. Therefore, they must pay the institutional tuition fees. For the coming academic year, TU Delft has set this at 15,950 euros for Bachelor’s students and 20,560 euros for Master’s students.
Young people who grew up here without papers, for example because their parents came here illegally, have to pay the higher fee as well. Refugees from Ukraine can currently study in the Netherlands at the statutory tuition fee, for which universities and colleges of higher education have set up a scheme at their own expense. But actually there should be a structural solution, according to the institutions.
Although Minister Dijkgraaf (Education, D66) want this to change as well, he believes that low tuition fees can have a ‘pull effect’ on refugees. Moreover, the cabinet is working on a “fundamental reorientation of asylum policy” he says. He does not want to thwart that process with a decision on the tuition fees of asylum seekers. (KB, HOP)
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