DEN HAAG/KRALENDIJK – PvdA and D66 plead for a kind of Erasmus scholarship for students in the Kingdom. They can now go with an Erasmus grant from the European Union to, say, Spain or Italy, but not to the Caribbean part of the kingdom.

Education Minister Dijkgraaf called it ‘paradoxical’ during a short debate in the Lower House last week that these students can go to other countries, but not from the Dutch Caribbean islands and vice versa. The minister was however also cautious: he warned that the capacity of higher education on the islands is limited.

Scholarship

There is a special direction group ‘study success Caribbean students’, led by Ron Bormans, the president of Hogeschool Rotterdam. This steering committee advises the four education ministers within the Kingdom. These are the ministers of the Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten. Dijkgraaf will bring the ‘Kingdom Mobility Program’ to the attention of that regiegroep, he assured.