For the first time, student debt in the Netherlands falls

Total student debt in the Netherlands has fallen by 800 million euros to 28 billion euros, Statistics Netherlands reports. For the third year in a row, fewer people have student debt.

In 2015, the government at the time abolished the basic grant for new students. This was one of the reasons total student debt in the Netherlands began to rise more rapidly. Now the basic grant has returned, and it is having an effect: fewer students have student debt.

The number of students with debt is falling not only because the basic grant has been reintroduced, but also because there are simply fewer students. Universities, universities of applied sciences and vocational colleges are starting to feel the effects of this decline. The total number of former students with debt is still rising, but it appears to have peaked.

Not all students were able to benefit fully from the basic grant when it returned, because they did not receive it for the years they had already spent studying. For vocational students, however, the grant had remained in place, including in the figures.

Total debt, covering both current and former students, has now fallen by 800 million euros to 28 billion euros, Statistics Netherlands reports.

People aged between 25 and 30 have the highest debts. They have recently graduated and have had little opportunity to pay them off. Most people in this group owe around 18 thousand euros. The average is 25.4 thousand euros, but that figure is pushed up by a smaller group who have borrowed much more.

The number of exceptionally high student debts is rising: 195 thousand people in the Netherlands owe between 30 thousand and 50 thousand euros. Another 145 thousand people owe even more. That is 22 per cent, twice as many as in 2017.

Meanwhile, interest rates on student debt are set to rise, according to figures released last week. The Education Executive Agency (DUO) has yet to officially announce the new rate.