Those who go to college after the summer are in luck. After more than five years of the loan system, the basic grant will return in September. Nice for new students, but sour for the unlucky generation, like Bronwyn Smeulders (24) from Eindhoven. She will graduate this summer and has racked up debt in recent years, while new students receive their education largely for free.
Bronwyn started her training as a social worker at the Fontys in 2018. Exactly at the moment when the basic grant became a loan. She had a part-time job, but was going to live in a room, so borrowing was unavoidable.
After five years, she has accumulated a debt of 44,000 euros. That includes a supplementary grant, which she was entitled to because her parents earn less. If Bronwyn completes her studies on time, that part will expire, but there will still be a debt of 27,000 euros. “When you’re just starting out, you think: that’s not too bad. But in hindsight it was a big setback.”
“Stopping was not an option. Then I had a debt of 40,000 euros and no diploma yet.”
When Bronwyn was a few years into her studies, she doubted whether she wanted to finish it. “I wasn’t sure if this was where my heart was,” she explains. She therefore took a gap year, but eventually decided to start again. “Stopping was not an option. Then I would now have a debt of 40,000 euros and no diploma yet.”
If all goes well, Bronwyn will graduate in a month. She would like to do another psychology course, but her guilt holds her back.
“I just go to work, because I also have to pay off that debt. That is not really motivating,” she says. “If I had had that scholarship in recent years, I could have saved. Then a second study was an option. Now I have years to pay back.”
“That fee is a pittance of what we paid.”
Students who have studied under the loan system for four years will receive a one-off allowance of approximately 1,400 euros from the government. A joke, says Bronwyn. “That’s a three-month scholarship. A pittance of what we paid.”
She thinks it’s very unfair. “Exactly when I came, the basic grant was abolished and is now being reintroduced. I fall right into that hole and am now watching it.”