Fine for late graduation is delayed once again — and might even be cancelled

Many parties in the House of Representatives would have preferred not to have a debate about the education budget on Thursday because intensive discussions have been taking place behind the scenes since Wednesday. The coalition has been meeting the opposition to talk about ways to weaken the billion-euro cutbacks.

Postponement after postponement
The debate went on with the Minister of Education, Eppo Bruins, as the first speaker. He surprised everyone by saying the fine for students who need more than one additional year to graduate will be postponed. The amendment to the law will not come into effect in 2026, as stipulated in the government's coalition agreement, nor will it happen in 2027 as the minister estimated in October. "It will be September 2028 at the earliest", Bruins said.

This will result in a budget problem of more than half a billion euros. After all, the austerity measures had already been booked. The gap is 95 million in 2026, 285 million in 2027 and around 190 million in 2028. Bruins: “It is a tough cut and that is what I stand for.” He will present a solution for this gap in the coming months. 

That is, if the fine comes after all
Last month, Dutch news outlets leaked that the minister was looking for an alternative to the fine as the measure hits some groups harder than others. There would be so many exceptions the minister would not be able to handle it.

In addition, the coalition has been meeting with the opposition since Wednesday to talk about the austerity measures in education. A "monster alliance" (comprised of parties D66, CDA, JA21, SGP and ChristenUnie) is threatening to vote against the budget in the Senate. They aim to reverse at least 1.3 billion euros from the cutbacks in education. These opposition parties specifically have the fine for delayed graduation in their sights.

“Harsh”
The opposition took another swipe at the fine on Thursday. MP Harmen Krul (CDA) called the measure “harsh”, while Sandra Beckerman (SP) said she knew why the minister said that he needed more time to work out the fine: “There is no substantiation for this.”

Beckerman pointed out that students are already taking the fine into account when choosing their studies. “They do not choose programmes in the STEM sciences because many students take longer to graduate." The idea behind the fine is to make a late graduation expensive: those who need longer than one year to obtain their degree would be forced to pay 3,000 per additional year, aside from tuition fees. 

Not a fan
Bruins himself is not a fan of the fine. He is looking for an alternative and knows that the fine could be off the table shortly. However,  as long as this is still the official policy, he cannot say anything else. “I hear that students are wondering whether they should continue studying. That is why I would like to say: just choose your study.”

The minister himself has pointed out a fundamental problem in the proposal. Asked whether it would be fair to impose a fine on students who have already started their studies, he said "Not really. But I must adhere to the financial framework outlined by the coalition agreement.”

Still being adjusted
At the end of the debate, Bruins advised against all opposition trying to reverse the cutbacks, including the amendment by CDA, D66 and JA21. But MP Joost Eerdmans of the latter party did not care about that anymore. “We all know we are talking about a budget that is still being adjusted,” said Eerdmans.