Educational istitutions must absorb part of the inflation

Inflation makes everything more expensive. In principle, government spending should increase accordingly. But that's not what is going to happen in the Netherlands next year. The outgoing cainet, comprised of the parties VVD and BBB, aims to reduce spending in general and thus spend less money on so-called “price adjustments”.

Outgoing Finance Minister Eelco Heinen (VVD) announced this yesterday to the House of Commons when presenting the Budget Memorandum. The Parliament will debate the national budget for 2026 tomorrow.

Reducing the price adjustment is a common practice. In 2025, half of it was withheld to balance the budget. This amounted to a total of 171.6 million euros (half of 343.2 million euros) for the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

The amount for 2026 will be revealed in the Spring Memorandum. Withholding the price adjustment will continue to have an impact for years to come, as it puts institutions at a financial disadvantage that they will only be able to overcome if politicians decide to increase spending.

Universities and universities of applied sciences
The Dutch Association of Universities of Applied Sciences is disappointed with the cutbacks via price adjustments. ‘Considering the labour market of today and tomorrow, now is the time to invest in higher professional education,’ says chairman Maurice Limmen.

The association of Dutch research universities, UNL, also criticised the government's course. Reacting to the announcements, UNL states that the additional cutbacks are expected to amount to 25 million euros, on top of the other cutbacks, which amount to around 300 million euros per year. ‘It is incomprehensible that this government continues to cut back on knowledge and innovation, which are essential for keeping our country safe, resilient and healthy,’ declares the UNL chairman, Caspar van den Berg.

The first budget cuts announced, which correspond to over 1 billion euros slashed from education and research, are still in the budget; nothing has changed in that regard. The only exception is the “educational opportunities scheme” in secondary education. As promised (and leaked), this will be retained.

Internationals
The Dutch government aims to save 168 million euros by reducing the number of international students. However, the number of foreign students coming to the Netherlands is lower than initially estimated anyway, so the saving goals have already been achieved. In 2026, universities of applied sciences will only have to reduce their spending by 1.9 million euros and research universities by 4.1 million euros. That is a total of 6 million euros.

Spending on education will ultimately fall by around 3 billion euros, so this is only partly due to the savings of roughly 1 billion euros. The rest is due to the expected decline in pupil and student numbers.