Name: Iris Kok (26)
Study: master comparative literature
Debt: 35 thousand euros
‘At the start of my master’s degree I had to pay a high deductible from my health insurance, just when I had 2 euros in my account. Then I started to borrow a little: 300 euros. After that I wanted to go on a study trip and I screwed up my loan a bit – click, click, click. A while later, I temporarily stopped working and borrowed – click, click – some more.
‘Now I am ashamed of my student debt. At a certain point I checked my bank details: had I done something crazy? But I didn’t waste it. The largest part is spent on rent, groceries, textbooks, study trips and tuition fees. My parents paid for part of my tuition and I had a part-time job for most of my college days.
‘Can you consider how much the debt is incurred by peers with parents who cannot contribute anything, or by medical students who are unable to work in addition to their internships. That is why I think that everyone who studied under the loan system should get the lost amount of basic grant back, although there will also be people who have invested everything in crypto coins.
‘I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but the 1,000 euros that we are now being promised cannot be compared with the 14,000 euros in basic grant that the generations of students before and after us received and will receive. When I finish paying off my debt, I’ll be 67 years old. Arrange something that won’t get in the way of our future.’
Daphne the Younger (23)
Study: criminology and psychology
Student debt: 43 thousand euros
‘My parents give love, but not money. I had two options: either borrow money to move into a room, or not borrow and commute five hours a day between Vlissingen and Rotterdam. I started borrowing as much as possible, also because we were promised at the time that a high debt would not affect a mortgage. Four years later, none of that is true.
‘The money I borrow every month goes towards my rent of 500 euros, groceries, tuition, school books, and the occasional night out. During the summer holidays I work five to six days a week to save. I canceled vacations due to lack of money. That’s not pathetic, but it’s true.
‘I hope that 15,000 euros of my debt will be forgiven. That is the amount we would otherwise have received as a basic grant. That’s only a third of my fault, but it would make a big difference. The government must also think of the people who wanted to avoid high debt at all costs. I know people who have continued to live at home, or have mentally worked themselves into the plague to continue working alongside their studies.
‘I’ve been thinking about my student debt every day for two years now. Still, I wouldn’t have made any other choices if I could do it again. Then I would still have lived with my parents, I would have been less independent and I would have made fewer friends during my student days.’
Name: Sarissa van Hetten (23)
Study: English teacher
Student debt: 25 thousand euros
‘I don’t lead an extravagant life at all. I work and receive a supplementary grant. In addition, I borrow more one month than the other. The money is spent on rent, groceries, clothes and sometimes outings, although that is of course less now than before corona. In the beginning I found it very tough to have to borrow so much, but at a certain point you think: everyone does it, I need it to get by: it must be normal.
‘Under Rutte’s rule, housing and education have become neglected: matters that are especially important for young people. The 1,000 euros that the cabinet is now promising as compensation for the loan system generation is a drop in the ocean. I feel like I’m lagging behind everyone else. For example, I can whistle for a mortgage for the time being.
‘I think that students are compensated pro rata under the loan system: cancel a certain percentage of everyone’s debt and, for example, give priority to housing for people who have decided to continue living at home out of fear of the loan. In retrospect I would have preferred to borrow less, but what could I have done differently? The government should have done it differently.’
Name: Michiel van Maaren (24)
Study: Design Academy Eindhoven
Student debt: 45 thousand euros
Name: Noor Bootsma (25)
Study: Design Academy and master political science
Student debt: 25 thousand euros
Michael: “When I was 18, I had no idea what this loan would mean for my future. I borrowed with the intention of putting it into my studies and myself, as an enrichment. Most of the money was spent on rent. Privileged as I am to go to art school, I sometimes bought expensive latex for an assignment, or had wooden planks delivered to home by the Gamma instead of collecting them.’
Norwegian: ‘It is a great responsibility to take out a loan. You are always warned in television commercials: borrowing money costs money, but when it comes to studying, you really can’t do anything else.’
Michael: ‘Because of this debt I won’t be able to buy a house for the next ten years and I’m still working on paying off at 60. That’s just not right. It is also becoming more difficult to work abroad: I can imagine, for example, that I cannot just buy a credit card in America with tens of thousands of euros in debt.’
Norwegian: ‘I come from a privileged environment: my parents can help financially if necessary. That gives peace of mind. But I know there are plenty of people out there who don’t have that and could really get into trouble. I understand that politicians opted for the loan system at the time to free up money for education, but our generation has not yet noticed this improvement in quality. In addition, the money mainly goes to recruiting new students, I know from my father who works in education. It’s crooked on all sides.’
Michael: ‘I am happy for the new generation of students who will receive a basic grant again. For us it feels as if we were part of an experiment: laboratory rats in a cage that now receive a few last grains in the form of 1,000 euros in compensation. I think that the cabinet should cancel the amount that we have not received as a basic grant.’
Name: Floris Siks (23)
Study: Teacher theater Zwolle
Debt: 30 thousand euros
“I’m afraid I’ll always have to ask myself: do I have enough money to pay off my debt this month? Do I have to work extra hard now? Should I have borrowed less then?’
‘So I find it exciting to just borrow what I want, but I do need money to make ends meet. I live by myself; traveling from my parental home to my studies is impossible. I now borrow 700 euros a month, which I spend on rent, school and food, so that I don’t have to eat only peanut butter sandwiches. The money I earn from work goes to my free time. Even though the study pressure is sometimes too high, I don’t work for a few months. There is no room to save.
‘I find it bizarre that our generation is now being fobbed off with 1,000 euros in compensation. I wanted to study, also because society demands that of you. If the Netherlands wants to present itself as a knowledge economy, you should invest in your students in the future.
‘Now our generation is just missing out, so we are starting with a backlog. I think that the cabinet should compensate every student in the loan system according to the old system: about 15 thousand euros for four years of study. Everything above that is a bonus.’