Unlucky Generation

After all these years, it’s finally here: the compensation for the unlucky generation. Or more accurately, the screwed generation. Between 2015 and 2022, the basic grant was abolished and the student loan system took its place. A degree is an investment in yourself, and one you should pay back once you’re earning more later in life — or so went the chorus from Parliament. And the money saved would be used to improve the quality of education. Borrowing was fine, even encouraged. There’s no interest and it won’t affect your mortgage, they promised. Where a student living away from home could previously count on roughly €20,000 over five years of study, that money now had to be borrowed.

Since 2023, the basic grant has returned. It turned out not to have been such a good idea after all. But what do the students who lived through the loan system actually receive? This generation was specially treated to barely any improvement in education, is now permitted to pay interest on their debt (up from 0% to 2.57%), and finds that every euro borrowed reduces their mortgage capacity by an average of two euros. Oh, and approximately €1,600 back to make it all square. Apparently, that improved education consisted mainly of a practical course in economic exploitation.