According to next calendar year’s budget, tuition fees at the UG will increase by 9.6 percent for students from outside the EU and anyone who’s doing a second programme. For Dutch and other EU students doing only one study programme, the increase is much lower.
This price hike is needed to compensate for inflation, Hans Biemans, portfolio manager with the board of directors, explained to the board committee during Thursday’s university council meeting.
The education minister decided that the inflation adjustment will be calculated differently for EU students, increasing the statutory tuition fees to 2,314 euros rather than 2,420. Any EU students attending the University College or Campus Fryslân will be paying 4,588 euros in tuition fees.
Dutch and EU students doing a second programme, as well as non-EU students will be paying category II institutional tuition fees. These vary per programme.
No compensation
‘We’re losing three million on that’, Biemans complained. That’s because the educational institutes are not compensated for the resulting difference.
The price hike does not apply to non-EU students at the medical faculty, since their tuition fees aren’t based on cost, but on the market value for Saudi medical students, according to Biemans. And those tuition fees were already fairly high. Anyone from outside the EU studying medicine pays 22,300 euros in fees. The master even costs 32,000 euros.
Student numbers
Whether the price increase will affect student numbers remains to be seen. Earlier, DUO project an increase in the number of students at the UG, from 36,422 in 2022 to 38,885 in 2026. ‘The tuition fees are increasing along the same growth factor’, the board writes.
The board’s budget proposal still has to pass the university council for approval.