Who will have to pay the 95,000 penalties for studying too long?
The long-study penalties for slow students are supposed to generate €285 million in 2027. That’s 95,000 penalties. One thing seems clear: It will be the usual suspects who will have to pay.
It is one of the remarkable plans in the agreement outlined by the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB - the long-study penalty of €3,000 for slower students. If you delay more than a year in your bachelor’s or master’s degree, it will hit your wallet.
The parties expect to save €285 million by 2027 with this measure. Converted, that’s 95,000 penalties or more. Some students may pay only part of the penalty if they graduate halfway through the academic year.
There are over 800,000 students in higher education, so roughly one in eight students would have to pay that penalty. But who exactly?
Men
Men take longer to graduate than women. At colleges, only 42 percent of men have a bachelor’s degree after five years of study, compared to 60 percent of women.
The rest have dropped out or are still studying. After eight years, another 21 percent of men have crossed the finish line and 17 percent of women. One thing is clear: men are more likely than women to be hit with the penalty.
This gap can be seen at universities, too. Women study faster than men, according to a monitor by research firm ResearchNed. Less than 70 percent of men obtain a bachelor’s degree within four years, compared to 80 percent of women. And these figures do not show the whole picture, because the universities only look at students who graduated from VWO (pre-university education).
Migrant background
It matters where you were born. In HBO, less than 40 percent of students with a migration background finish within five years, compared to roughly 55 percent of students without a migration background, according to the same survey.
There is less of a gap at universities, but once again, it should be noted that these are VWO students. So those who get to university via a college preparatory course - and migrant children have to apply themselves more - are not visible.
Incidentally, six universities are currently conducting research into the influence of origin on study careers. One of the findings is that once at university, students with a migrant background are less likely than others to obtain a degree. However, further analysis is required to draw firm conclusions.
Course of study
It is also noteworthy that in higher education, study success differs by sector. After five years of study, less than half of all students in teacher training programs have graduated (at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, the figure is as low as 37 percent). This is not due to the PABO programs, either, where almost 60 percent finish on time.
Among STEM students, the graduation rate is also low: 47 percent. By comparison, in art programs it is 65 percent and in health care 60 percent.
Informal care, functional limitations
You might not easily find some things in the statistics, but you can guess. “Young informal caregivers who are studying perform more poorly in their studies and take longer than students who do not provide informal care,” writes the Social and Cultural Planning Office.
There are also students with a “support need.” For example, they may have a chronic illness, a motor disability, or a mental illness. All in all, it adds up to 15 percent of students, almost half of whom experience barriers to study, reportsthe Expertise Center for Inclusive Education. So that could easily be 60,000 at greater risk of study delays.
Plus, these students do not always know how to find help. One in three do not seem to know that you can get extra time or other adjustments for exams when necessary. Nor is the possible financial support widely known.
So who will pay?
Who will soon be paying the long study penalty? It is, for example, a male college student with a migration background who is training to be a teacher and takes care of his sick mother in his spare time, while suffering from ADHD himself.
And there are bound to be other such factors. In the House of Representatives, Rob Jetten (D66) referred to students “who don’t get a bag of money from their parents” and top student athletes.
NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt continued to support the penalty. But he did want to talk about possible exceptions for people who have a long-term illness or doing an administrative year.
This article uses figures from the websites of the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences, the UNL university association UNL, the statistics agency CBS, the Monitor Policy Measures (ResearchNed), and research by six universities on migration background and study success.
