‘The outgoing cabinet is leaving a big hole behind’, says chairperson Rhea van der Dong of the Interstedelijk Studenten Overleg (ISO). ‘It’s a bit like leaving a mess for the next person when leaving your student lodgings.’
In 2018, the budget of the Ministry of Education was already running into quite a deficit, which increased to 244 million. In 2019, this is 415 million euro and a year later it will still total 409 million. According to the Ministry, it is up to the next cabinet to fix these holes.
Wow, the hole in the education budget increases massively! In 2019, there will possibly be 415 million in cutbacks. @MinOCW #hoedan?! #miljoenennota pic.twitter.com/fhacbsPo7l
— Tariq Sewbaransingh (@TariqSingh) September 19, 2017
Throttling
University association VSNU assumes that VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie will fix the deficit in the new coalition agreement. ‘Uncertainty regarding this issue should not last until Prinsjesdag 2018’, the universities say. ‘I hope that the forming parties realise that slowly throttling higher education and science is bad for everyone’, departing VSNU chairperson Karl Dittrich states.
Chairperson Thom de Graaf of Vereniging Hogescholen hopes that the proceeds of the loan system are put towards education. ‘Students pay more for their studies and rightfully expect that these means are used to improve the quality of higher education’, he says.
Increasing costs
Student union LSVb is very disappointed with the Budget Memorandum. ‘The national budget shows that the government is not taking any measures to limit the increasing costs for students. The cabinet does not offer compensation for the loan system, the increasing tuition and higher rent’, says chairperson Tariq Sewbaransingh.
The cabinet is just forwarding the bill in an underhanded manner, Sewbaransingh feels. ‘We demand that the Minister explains quickly how this hole is going to be filled.’