to updateHBO students who progress to a university master’s degree do not miss out on “years” of the basic scholarship compared to other master’s students, but only one year. This was stated by outgoing Education Minister Robert Dijkgraaf following a report from Avrotros’ consumer Radar programme.
Anyone who obtains a bachelor’s degree and then a master’s degree at higher vocational education or university receives a basic scholarship for the duration of their studies, even if the master’s degree lasts several years. Students who undertake a master’s degree at HBO after their undergraduate bachelor’s degree also receive the basic scholarship. “But if you visit the university after graduation, you will be excluded,” Radar said in its broadcast on Monday evening.
About 5,000 transfer students were affected by the rule last academic year, the program reported, citing figures from Statistics Netherlands (the central statistics office). “In the 2023/2024 academic year, they will lose 5,200 euros from the basic grant,” Radar said.
minister
According to outgoing Education Minister Robert Dijkgraaf, it is not true that higher vocational education students miss out on “years” of the basic scholarship when they obtain a university master’s degree. ‘With a one-year master’s degree, you now do not get a one-year basic scholarship. But with a two-year university master’s degree, as a student in higher vocational education, you still get a one-year basic grant,” his spokesperson explains in a written response to this news site. ‘In the current system, you get one year less performance grant.’ From the nominal duration of the Master’s programme: 2-1=1. So it is one year, not “years”.
I find it difficult to explain that a student of higher vocational education who wants to do a one-year university master’s degree after a bachelor’s degree in higher vocational education does not receive a basic scholarship.
Outgoing Education Minister Robert Dijkgraaf
Minister Dijkgraaf finds it “difficult to explain” that a higher vocational education student who wants to do a one-year university master’s degree after completing a higher vocational bachelor’s degree does not receive a basic scholarship. While he would have had it if he had gotten his master’s degree at HBO. But, as he also said in the broadcast, this is something the next government must address.
The basic grant will return to higher education from the 2023-2024 academic year and applies to all students, including those who have already started studying. The requirement is that students are still entitled to student funding, or are within the number of years for which studies officially continue.
According to the Minister, the reintroduction of the basic grant is a major step towards bringing the MBO, HBO and WO systems closer together. “This fits with his idea that we should have as few variations as possible in further education. Consider the repayment plan for MBO students, who, just like HBO and WO students, now have 35 years to pay off their student debt,” his spokesman said.
But this does not mean that there are no longer differences that cannot be properly explained. The speaker continues on these matters, for example, student finance. He added: “The minister was keen to return the basic grant this month. This was a widely shared desire. The schedule was very tight, but we made it work. But to make this introduction possible by September 2023, it was decided to link it as closely as possible to the current student finance system.
Adjusting the transition between a bachelor’s degree and a university master’s degree at HBO is a structural change that costs a lot of money and time. “Since the Cabinet is now out of office, it is up to the next Cabinet to decide whether and what to do about the current difference between university and college students after obtaining a master’s degree.”
In principle, students are entitled to a performance-related scholarship for 4 years. This is enough to complete a Bachelor’s degree at HBO (4 years) or a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at WO (3+1 year). Whether you receive an additional performance-related scholarship on top of this depends on the Master’s program you choose:
– For an HBO Master’s degree, you will receive a performance-related scholarship for the nominal duration of that Master’s study. The first four years are used toward a bachelor’s degree at HBO, making a master’s degree at HBO also available.
– For a university Master’s degree, you will receive a performance scholarship for the nominal duration minus an additional year (i.e. for a two-year Master’s degree, an additional year). This is because an undergraduate bachelor’s degree only lasts for three years for university students. The four years that the student initially obtains also include one year for the master’s degree.
– Students who move from a Bachelor’s degree HBO to a Master’s degree WO receive a performance scholarship of one year less than the nominal duration of the Master’s degree program.
– For the HBO bachelor’s degree in addition to the one-year HBO master’s degree, the student is entitled to a five-year basic scholarship (for five years of study).
– For the HBO bachelor’s degree plus the one-year WO master’s degree, the student is entitled to four years of basic scholarship (for five years of study).
– For a university bachelor’s degree plus a one-year university master’s degree, the student is entitled to five years of basic scholarship (or up to six years for a two-year master’s degree)
This arrangement already existed in the loan system and before that in the old basic grant system, that is, before 2015. This arrangement assumes that you have a higher vocational education or a university degree, that is, one level of education. But about 10 percent of higher vocational education students now go on to obtain a university master’s degree after earning a four-year bachelor’s degree. “Then you move on to a different level of education,” the outgoing minister’s spokesman Dijkgraaf said.
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