The square in front of the entrance to the House of Representatives in The Hague is expected to be full of angry students, former students, parents and others who feel connected to the ‘unlucky student’ this afternoon. Ken Hesselink (22) from Geesbrug also joins the Interest Protest.
Hesselink is chairman of the Groninger Studentenbond (GSb), a student union that stands up for the interests of higher education students in Groningen. De Geesbrugger is in his fourth year of study and is following a bachelor’s degree in sociology. “I already have a student loan of 20,000 euros. I work alongside it, fortunately that helps a bit. However, the interest rate has now suddenly been increased from 0.46 percent to 2.56 percent. That is a huge jump.”
“I really feel screwed,” Hesselink continues. “Students have been lied to. When the government introduced the loan system, the promise was that an interest rate of 0 percent would apply. The debt would also not count towards a later mortgage. They did not keep all those promises. The expectation was that fewer people would go to study, but that turned out not to be the case in practice.”
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