KRALENDIJK – Good news for Caribbean students intending to study in the Netherlands. According to a press release from the Rijksdienst Caribisch Nederland, the basic grant will return from September 2023.

DUO, the organization responsible for student finance, will award this grant. Applications can be submitted from June 19, provided students are already in the Netherlands and have a Citizen Service Number (BSN) and DigiD. Registered students from the Caribbean will receive a special form to apply for the basic grant.

The amount of the grant depends on the student’s living situation: €274.90 per month for students living independently and €110.30 for those living at home. In addition, due to high costs, there is an extra allowance of €164.30 per month for all students living independently. This means that an independent student will receive approximately €440 in September, which totals to more than €5,200 over the academic year 2023-2024.

The additional grant is made more accessible by raising the income limit of parents to €70,000, which increases equal opportunities in education. The maximum additional grant from September will be €416 per month.

Minister Dijkgraaf announces that the repayment rules for student loans will be standardized for MBO, HBO, and WO students. This will bring more equality among different educational directions.

With the reintroduction of the basic grant, there will also be a compensation for students who have studied under the loan system. This amounts to €1,436 per student for a nominal study period of four years. In addition, approximately 375,000 students who have studied from 2015/16 to 2018/19 will receive an extra compensation to replace the advance study voucher of around €1,835. This compensation will be paid out or deducted from their study debt.