Headlines

The last issue of U-blad this season will appear on Thursday 6thJuly (next week). The first issue after the vacation will appear on31st August.

Tuition

From September next, undergraduates from countries in theEuropean Union will have to pay one thousand guilders for a year'stuition in the Netherlands. The plan to end the complete exemptionfrom the regular fees of 2,874 guilders had already been announcedby Education Minister Loek Hermans in his autumn budget last year.However, many student advisers in the country do not seem to knowabout the new measure. They are still advising EU students thattheir fees will be fully refunded. Every year about ten thousand EUstudents come to the Netherlands to study. "They might become thevictims of a woeful lack of publicity", says Peter Rehwinkel,labour member of the Dutch parliament. He has asked the minister topostpone the measure by at least one year.

Internationalization

According to the ISO student organization "Universities arealways shouting from the rooftops that internationalization is oneof their priorities, but their words are hardly ever followed byany deeds". ISO has been investigating the problems encountered bystudents who have plans to travel and study abroad. A lack of clearinformation, no grants, lots of paperwork and uncertainty aboutforeign course credits. These are the main reasons why studentssoon abandon any idea of studying abroad, according to ISO. Sixtyout of every hundred students would like to go abroad for a periodof study, but in the end only three pack their bags.

Code of conduct

At the Faculty of Geography and Planning a debate has eruptedabout student behavior. The question is whether a code of conductshould be set up for new students and whether teachers shoulddemand much stricter discipline from their students. It has beenreported that more than two-thirds of the undergraduates fail toattend any classes at all. Making mobile telephone calls, readingthe morning paper, being plugged in to a walkman, and arriving lateand noisily for classes are obviously higher on their list ofpriorities.