Ukrainian students have to pay non-European rate for their studies next year

Ukrainian refugees who want to study at a Dutch university will have to pay the tuition for non-European students in the upcoming academic year. That is the cost of the course, roughly between 10,000 and 15,000 euros per year, the Volkskrant reports.

For the current academic year, the umbrella organizations Universities of the Netherlands and the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences jointly made an exception for Ukrainian students who fled the war. They paid the same tuition as Dutch students, 2,209 euros last year. But Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf of Education decided against introducing a general regulation for this, leaving it up to the universities to determine if they want to make an exception for Ukrainian refugees.

Most higher education institutions don’t plan on making the exception this coming academic year, mainly because they can’t bear the costs, the umbrella organizations told the Volkskrant. “We believe that it is the task of the national government to finance this,” said a spokesperson for the Universities of the Netherlands. The 540 Ukrainians who enrolled in Dutch universities last year can complete their studies under the same conditions, thus paying Dutch rates instead of non-European rates.

Some universities will give Ukrainian refugees a discount on their own initiative. TU Eindhoven, for example, will charge the same rate as Dutch students. “We want to help talented young people from Ukraine financially this way,” a spokesperson told the Volksrkant.

Ukrainian refugees are not eligible for subsidized study due to the special status they hold in the Netherlands. When Russia invaded Ukraine, the government decided to exempt fleeing Ukrainians from the regular asylum procedure but allow them to stay under the Temporary Protection Directive.

The upside is that they didn’t have to go into overcrowded asylum shelters run by the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers but could claim shelter from the municipalities if they needed it. They could also start working immediately.

The downside of the separate status is that Ukrainians don’t have the same rights as regular refugees - asylum seekers whose applications got approved and received residency permits. Ukrainian refugees can’t apply for social assistance benefits and are not entitled to student finance.