No reduction in tuition fees for refugees
Education minister Dijkgraaf will not reduce tuition fees for refugee students for the time being. He fears the pressure on higher education will then become too great, he told the House of Representatives.
In principle, refugee students have to pay the full institutional tuition fees. But colleges and universities are free to decide to charge them a lower fee. This approach works well, Minister Dijkgraaf writes.
The students are also supported by the Foundation for Refugee Students UAF, which in turn receives funding from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. “As it concerns a limited number of students for the time being, the pressure on the system, both financially and quantitatively, is limited,” Dijkgraaf writes.
Generic support measures for this target group, which GroenLinks and D66 called for during a parliamentary debate, Dijkgraaf rejects. He considers this “likely to have a pull effect, partly due to a large supply of English-language education in the Netherlands”, and that is at odds with the Lower House’s desire to control the flow of international students. (HOP, HC)
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