{"id":138613,"date":"2022-04-08T11:07:54","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T09:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=138613"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:14","slug":"dijkgraaf-is-considering-to-make-supplementary-student-grant-more-accesable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2022\/04\/08\/dijkgraaf-is-considering-to-make-supplementary-student-grant-more-accesable\/","title":{"rendered":"Dijkgraaf is considering to make supplementary student grant more accesible"},"content":{"rendered":"

In spite of all the efforts of opposition parties, Minister of Education Dijkgraaf wouldn\u2019t budge a millimetre yesterday during the debate about the new basic student grant and compensation for students who had \u2018bad luck\u2019. He has been given two pots of one billion euros each to spend and not a cent more.<\/p>\n

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Minister of education Robbert Dijkgraaf is considering to make supplementary student grant more accesible.<\/span><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>

\u201cI\u2019m still looking for the magic money tap at the Ministry, but I haven\u2019t been able to find it yet\u201d, Dijkgraaf told Parliamentarians after the latest attempt by opposition parties to get him to raise the government\u2019s expenditure on basic student grants.<\/p>\n

He also doesn\u2019t have a single euro extra to compensate students who had \u2018bad luck\u2019 and missed out on the basic student grant. There too a billion euros has been earmarked and it will have to suffice, because that\u2019s what was formerly agreed. For taking this position he received the full support of the coalition parties.<\/p>\n

No answer<\/h2>

But why was that agreed? The Minister wasn\u2019t able to give an answer right away. It was the outcome of negotiations conducted by others. \u201cI think that the question can be answered, but not by me.\u201d DENK, GroenLinks and Partij voor de Dieren kept going for a while, but they didn\u2019t get an answer.<\/p>\n

Volt and BBB had another look at the government\u2019s coalition agreement. Surely it says that one billion will be allocated for reintroduction of the basic student grant? But the Minister wants to implement all kinds of other policies with that money too, like improving funding for students in senior secondary vocational education (MBO). Can\u2019t he find other money for that, so that there\u2019s more left over for the reintroduction of the basic student grant? The parties submitted a motion to that effect.<\/p>\n

Looking as if it had been pre-arranged, CDA and D66 began to reproach the two parties, saying that they obviously valued students in higher education more than those in MBO programmes. This took BBB MP Van der Plas by surprise. She just wanted more money, she explained. \u201cI\u2019m strongly committed to MBO students, I have two sons who are MBO students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Minister didn\u2019t want anything to do with the motion, anyway. It didn\u2019t say where the extra funding would come from, was his explanation.<\/p>\n\n\t

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