Where does your tuition fee actually go? Not to your degree programme

Every year: around 3,000 euros in tuition fees leaves your account. Are you a student from outside Europe? Then that amount can even rise towards 13,000 euros. Where does all that money actually go?

As a European student, you pay around 3,000 euros a year. Quite a sum, but for the university that is nowhere near enough to cover the cost of your studies. That is why the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science contributes a substantial amount every year. In 2024, that was 12,930 euros per student. Are you from outside Europe? Then you pay considerably more. The university does not receive a contribution from the ministry for these students. That is why your bill is much higher.

But your tuition fee is only a small part of all the money that EUR receives. In 2025, 95 million euros came in through tuition and examination fees. Sounds like a lot of money, right? Not really. The total budget of Erasmus University was 961 million euros. Your tuition fee therefore accounts for less than 10 per cent of all income.

Expenses

You might have thought: I pay tuition fees, so that money goes to my degree programme. If only it were that simple. According to Simona Thalen, head of Corporate Financial Policy & Control, the money from the ministry and tuition fees is first pooled together. The money is then distributed among faculties, support services and central facilities.

The largest expense for EUR is staff. In 2025, this amounted to no less than 655 million euros. Converted, nearly 1,900 euros of your tuition fees goes to staff salaries. And no, that is not just the lecturers looking at you in a chilly lecture hall at 8.00 am. Support staff are paid from this budget too. Think of human resources, ICT services and other departments that keep the university running.

Then there are buildings. In 2025, 49 million euros was spent on them, in other words: 137 euros out of your pocket. Maintenance, energy, security, cleaning and other costs all add up quickly. The services you use every day as a student also cost money. The University Library, for example. But also Canvas, ICT systems, study spaces and other student facilities. So the next time you spend three hours scrolling at a study spot instead of studying, remember that that chair, Wi-Fi and electricity have to be paid for somehow too.

Education or research? Often both

This is where things become a bit more complicated. You cannot simply say of every euro: this is for teaching or this is for research. Lecturers, for example, teach classes and conduct research. The library is used by students and researchers. And support services are there for the entire university. That’s why it is also difficult to calculate exactly how much one student costs EUR.

Not per student

The university does not allocate money and costs on a per-student basis. It works with a distribution model. This takes into account, among other things, the number of students, the number of degrees awarded and specific guidelines from the ministry.

So… where does your 3,000 euros go? The honest answer: to a whole range of things. Part of it pays your lecturer, part of it keeps the buildings running, and part of it ensures that you can log into Canvas, sit in heated lecture halls or stress in the University Library before your exams.