Students protest to keep Dutch student grant

Political parties across the board want to do away with the Dutch system of paying every student a grant. Angry students held sit-ins at university buildings in several cities on Monday.

A large white sheet covered the entrance to the Oudemanhuispoort, the 17th century complex in the historic heart of Amsterdam that houses the law and social sciences faculties of the Amsterdam University UvA. Red letters in several languages proclaimed the university had been occupied: 'bezet', ‘occupied’, ‘occupée’, ‘occupata’, ‘bezezt’ (sic). Most students who entered the building glanced at the banner for a second and went on to attend their classes. This is 2010, not 1969.

On Monday, an estimated 1,000 students at universities in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Nijmegen and Rotterdam protested against the imminent cut-backs on higher education in the Netherlands. One of the seemingly inevitable plans of the Dutch government is to axe the grant every student attending a higher education college or university receives. Students over 18 who live with their parents get 90 euros a month, those who live on their own receive 260, to help pay their tuition fees, rent and other expenses for four years.

The basic student grant was introduced in 1986. Before then, the government only gave financial aid to students from underprivileged families, who are still eligible for bigger grants. In the 1990s the grant was changed into a performance-related loan which is only converted into a gift for students who obtain their degree within ten years. Tuition flees are a flat 1500 euros per year in the Netherlands. Most students get money from their parents and have side jobs and additional loans to support themselves.

Classes went ahead as normally in Amsterdam on Monday, some 200 protesters had only really occupied one lecture hall to loudly voice their disapproval of what they consider the demise of university education in the Netherlands. The protests were aimed at all cuts on higher education, but the immediate reason for the occupation was the forthcoming abolition of the student grant. To the students in Amsterdam that was "the last straw", they wrote in a letter to the board of the UvA. In the same letter, they promised not to use any drugs or alcohol during the siege. A repetition of that message was met with some jeers from the hall.

A long desired measure

The poor state of the Dutch economy plays a big part in the looming demise of the student grant. At the presentation of the 2010 state budget last September, the government promised to get public finances back in order by instigating 20 task forces to investigate where cuts can be made. The ministry of education is one of the areas where a 20 percent budget reduction has to be outlined by May 1. The government can save one billion euros annually if it scraps the basic student grants. As practically all primary and secondary schools (as well as universities) are public in the Netherlands, those costs many times that. But it is harder to make cuts there, because it is not an option to fire teachers and send children home. Axing the grant is a much easier option.

But that is not the sole reason the student grant has been drawing more and more fire recently. The economic hardship gives politicians the momentum to realise a long desired measure. Political parties across the board have said there are no justifications to give away 'free' money to students. Why don't they borrow all the money they need to get an education? Most will make more than enough to repay their loans after they graduate, the reasoning goes. Those who don't have an income high enough to repay in full can already rely on a lenient repayment plan.

Ronald Plasterk, the Labour minister for education, proposed discarding the basic grant in 2007, when he wanted to use the money to increase teachers' pay. Labour leader Wouter Bos in 2006 referred to the system as "perverted solidarity", because a butcher's taxes pay for the education of a lawyer. Bos advocated a "social loan system" that allows all students to borrow money and makes them repay it according to capacity.

A similar idea was proposed by the independent government bureau for economic policy analysis as early as 2003. A prominent Labour politician drafted several scenarios for these social loans that year and right-wing liberals voiced their support on NRC Handelsblad's opinion pages last fall.

Trying to turn the tide

Even the Green party, a traditionally advocate for student interests, wants rid of the current grant system. In November, a Green member of parliament proposed students will receive a monthly income slightly similar to unemployment benefits and will no longer have to pay any tuition fees. In return, they should pay an additional percent in taxes if they end up making more than the modal income.

Not only politicians have come round, the associations of colleges and universities, HBO-Raad and VSNU respectively, have reconciled themselves with the system of loans instead of grants, which angered some present at the sit-in on Monday. Gerard Oosterwijk of the main student union LSVb expressed his displeasure over their attitude. "It is not up to the education institutions to give up the benefits for the students. This would be the time to band together against politics. Education shouldn't be cut back on, it needs more money."

The other major student union, ISO, was not involved in the strike on Monday, saying it was too early to protest against possible cuts in higher education. ISO chairman Henno van Horssen said scrapping the student benefits is not a taboo for him. "No system is sacred to us. What matters is the accessibility of higher education for everyone. The current system works in that regard. If it is replaced, it should be by something that is at least equal. Most important is that cuts made on the student grants are used for higher education."

Oosterwijk, on the other hand, predicted many more actions and a possible mass demonstration this year. The question is if that could turn the tide.