“Stop blackmailing us, no fine for studying!”

If it is up to the government coalition of PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB, students who are more than a year behind with their studies will soon pay an extra three thousand euros in tuition fees. All in all, the future cabinet, that will start next week, wants to cut nearly a billion euros a year on higher education and research.

Elisa Weehuizen, president of the national student union (LSVb, Landelijke Studentenvakbond), which organised the protest, is the first speaker at Utrecht’s Jaarbeursplein. She thinks the fine is unfair and unreasonable because there are all kinds of reasons why students can be delayed. “Are you doing an administrative year, do you dedicate yourself to other students, are you chronically ill or is your study just very difficult? Then the government would like to see you pay a fine of three thousand euros.”

In her view, the new coalition has done nothing for students and their welfare in recent years. “Who cut billions this year to compensate the unlucky generation? The NSC party. Who ignored a call from young people to be allowed to sit at the formation table? All the coalition parties. Who is now cutting education to pieces? All the coalition parties.” She ends with the slogan: “Stop blackmailing us, no fine for studying!”

Lying across in front of it

The demonstration received support from WOinAction (Science in Action). Co-founder Rens Bod, full professor at the UvA, warned in his speech that the long-study fine will put further pressure on the accessibility of higher education and that this will mean even less knowledge and expertise available to tackle the problems in society.

“We are demonstrating not only against the cuts and the long-study fine, but also against the systematic undermining of science and knowledge,” Bod said. “We must therefore lie crosswise in front of these cuts and not cooperate with them in any way.” He called on university administrators to be principled and not cooperate with the cuts. “Do not implement these schemes!”

March through Utrecht

After the last speeches, the demonstrators started a protest march through Utrecht. Student Jente (19) is also walking along. She is studying nursing in college and hopes she will not be delayed because she cannot find an internship right away. “If that does happen, it will not be my fault and I will take longer to complete my studies than I want. If I then also have to pay a long-study fine, it’s really not fair.”

Students and academics from all over the Netherlands joined the protest, as were administrators from the universities of Utrecht, Rotterdam, Groningen, Tilburg and Leiden, among others. Education unions were also in attendance, representatives of youth parties and MPs from opposition parties.

Petition

GroenLinks-PvdA MP Luc Stultiens is the initiator of a petition against the long-term study fine, which has now been signed over 62 thousand times. According to him, the fine will put students at an even greater disadvantage. “That is why we want to get this plan off the table by demonstrating and keeping it on the agenda in the Lower House. We will come up with alternative plans if the government runs out of money.”

Caspar van den Berg, president of the Board of the Universities Association UNL, and Maurice Limmen, president of the Board of the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences, were also at the demonstration. But Limmen said when asked that he first wants to wait and see exactly what Eppo Bruins, the intended minister of OCW, will do with the plans of the coalition agreement. “Only when we know more about the fine, its impact and the cuts will we enter into talks with the minister to address this. Until then, I support the dissenting voices, but do not yet make any statements on what actions the Association will take.”

Absurd

Physics student Rens (20) is angry about the plans. He finds it “absurd” that he might soon be fined for taking a difficult study. “I already have a part-time job to study at all, so a fine is really a no-go for me.”