The Netherlands’ Covid crisis package of financial support for students and universities, which includes halving tuition fees next year, has been seen as a potential model as learners in England continue to call for compensation over the disruption to their education.

Under the €9.2 billion (£7.9 billion) package of support for education, including universities, the Dutch government will fund half of students’ fees for 2021-22 – which normally total around €2,000 for Dutch and other European Union nationals. The move aims to help those whose studies have been delayed because they have been unable to take exams or to complete internships and exchange programmes.

The package also includes additional living cost grants for students, plus €162 million to fund researchers on short-term contracts who have seen their projects disrupted, allowing their employment to continue.

There is €645 million to fund universities to cope with what the government calls “an enormous influx of students” who will not undertake gap years because of travel restrictions, aimed at ensuring extra staff are recruited so “workload decreases”.

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Martin Paul, president Maastricht University, said it was important to note that the fee cut was not compensation for teaching being online, but for delays to study. This was “logical”, as “universities have the same or even higher costs” in running online teaching, he added.

The package was “a very generous measure” and “much appreciated” given the wider “underfunding of Dutch universities”, Professor Paul said.

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Lyle Muns, chair of the LSVb federation of students’ unions, said that with the halving of fees, students can more easily “do an extra year or have less costs when they study next year”. The LSVb had “fought a long time for a reduction in tuition fees and finally the government took our concerns seriously”, he added.

Robert-Jan Smits, president of Eindhoven University of Technology, agreed the package of measures was “very much appreciated”. But he said it was “by far not enough to cover the enormous costs” faced by universities in the crisis, including “expenditure on online education – both hardware and software – support for working from home, [and] recruitment of student psychologists to provide mental support to an increased group of youngsters facing stress”. 

In England, there has been extra hardship funding for students and support for universities on research from the government. But ministers have answered mounting student discontent about paying £9,250-a-year fees for disrupted education by saying that calls for fee compensation are a matter for universities.

Larissa Kennedy, president of the National Union of Students, said: “Students were lied to about what was safely possible and the scientific advice was ignored, in order to exploit us for fees and rent. To ensure students receive justice for the financial exploitation we have faced this year, and to make sure students are never treated like cash cows again, we are calling on the government to underwrite tuition fees this year, next year, and every year.”

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john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com