{"id":144351,"date":"2022-09-30T16:57:13","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T14:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=144351"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:26","slug":"100000-signatures-against-interest-on-student-loans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2022\/09\/30\/100000-signatures-against-interest-on-student-loans\/","title":{"rendered":"100,000 signatures against interest on student loans"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 100,000 people have signed a petition against interest on student loans. The debts are already high enough, according to unions LSVb and FNV Young & United.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPauline Wiersema<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

For years the interest rate on student loans was 0%, but that is likely to change. Students would then have to pay back more than they borrow. Around a month ago, the Dutch Student Union (LSVb) and FNV Young & United started an online petition against raising the interest rate.<\/p>\n

For years the two unions have fought to reinstate the basic student grant, which students will once again receive from September 2023. Now they want to ensure that students in the student loan system don\u2019t lose even more money.<\/p>\n

The basic student grant was discontinued in 2015, and student loan debt has risen since then. \u201cForty thousand euros is no longer an exception,\u201d says Yasmin Ait Abderrahman, president of FNV Young & United.<\/p>\n

\u2018Lied to\u2019<\/h2>

According to her, students feel lied to. \u201cWe\u2019ve been telling DUO for a long time: add the warning \u2018borrowing money costs money\u2019, but that didn\u2019t happen. Politicians have actually encouraged student loans. Many students didn\u2019t even know that the interest rate could be increased. Then they\u2019ll feel cheated when that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aren\u2019t students responsible for reading the terms and conditions before taking out a loan? Ait Abderrahman: \u201cThat\u2019s easy to say, but 17 and 18-year-olds are having to make choices that will affect the rest of their lives. And they\u2019re always told that the loan conditions are so favourable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students in the student loan system will soon receive a \u20ac1,400 reimbursement if they missed out on the basic student grant for four years. With a rising interest rate, they would quickly lose that money, the two unions say.<\/p>\n

Low interest<\/h2>

That\u2019s true: someone who pays off a debt of \u20ac20,000 with an interest rate of just 1% will pay nearly \u20ac3,700 in interest over the course of 35 years. For those paying back their loans, student finance provider DUO always offers five years of fixed interest, so the rate can change in the meantime.<\/p>\n

The interest stays lower than the commercial rates, since it is linked to the interest that the Dutch government pays. Because the government is so reliable, the interest rates are relatively low. In addition, any remaining debt is forgiven after 35 years of repayment.<\/p>\n

One hundred thousand signatures is quite a lot. A previous petition to do away with the student loan system gathered some 90,000 signatures. But that number was also surpassed when a few cohorts demanded a refund of their tuition money.<\/p>\n\n\t

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