Master’s Students to Escape New Loan System for Another Year
THE HAGUE, 24/09/13 - Education Minister Jet Bussemaker is probably going to have to accept another postponement of her plans to convert student grants to loans.
Students currently still receive a grant of 270 euros a month if they live in rooms, or 98 euros if they live with their parents. They will in future have to borrow this money, under cabinet plans. But under pressure from the opposition, Bussemaker already postponed the system for Bachelor students until 2015 before the summer. Now it looks as though Master’s students will not have to borrow the money for their study in 2014 either, because the leftwing Greens (GroenLinks), necessary for the coalition to achieve a majority in the Senate, only wants to introduce the loan system for all students in 2015. Bussemaker has her eye on GroenLinks, along with centre-left D66, for support for the loan system in the Upper House. Both opposition parties urged the loan system in their election programmes, but have attached a number of conditions to their approval. Bussemaker appears to be accepting her defeat. “I am pleased that GroenLinks leader Bram van Ojik is now saying the loan system must be introduced,” she said. |
|
