MP: Give students course credit for coronavirus innovations

The VVD wants to give students credits on their studies if exchange for their social commitment to fighting the coronavirus crisis. Students could get credits for voluntarily participating in source and contact tracing, for setting up a company for respiratory equipment, or for any other innovative actions in helping the Netherlands through this crisis, VVD parliamentarian Dennis Wiersma said to NOS.

Wiersma wants this regulation to be added to the coronavirus law for higher education. "We demand a great deal of flexibility from students in these corona times. We should give them something in return," he said to the broadcaster. "You help not only the students, but also society."

Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven of Education called this a sympathetic plan, but one which may contain some hidden organization snags. "But I am certainly willing to see if we can arrange this," she said to NOS.