Fewer Dutch people enrolled at a university this academic year. The drop was biggest in students without graduate parents. Some people blame this on the abolition of the basic grant but Tupan-Wenno disagrees. ‘What is really holding students back is the lack of information about the loan system,’ she says to Rotterdam University’s Erasmus Magazine. ‘In the Netherlands, the emphasis is on the disadvantages of taking out a loan whereas you should be talking about the opportunities that a degree gives you.’
‘Loan system itself is not the problem’
If you give young people decent information about student loans, they won’t be afraid to go to university, says Mary Tupan-Wenno of expertise centre ECHO. Not even if they come from a poor family.
