THE HAGUE - The Dutch minister of education Robbert Dijkgraaf does not want to reduce the student debt of students from the Caribbean part of the Kingdom, because by applying for the financial capacity scheme they would have to repay less or even nothing at all based on their income.
Dijkgraaf is thus responding to questions from D66 MP Jorien Wuite to simply reduce student debt. However, Dijkgraaf believes that students who make use of student grant rights are also given the associated obligations and that it would be "not fair" to reduce their debts.
Students from the Caribbean part of the Kingdom receive the same student grant rights as students from the European Netherlands. Nevertheless, Caribbean students generally not only have a higher student debt, but also more often have higher payment arrears.
It is also striking that they less often request a financial capacity calculation. In the European Netherlands this happens automatically and applications are not necessary because of a link to the tax authorities.