At the beginning of 2026, the total student debt owed by current and former students in the Netherlands stood at €28 billion, according to figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS). That is €0.8 billion less than a year earlier. This marks the first time that total student debt has fallen.

Since the reintroduction of the basic student grant in the 2023–24 academic year, the number of students with loans has decreased. The number of people with student debt has also been falling for three consecutive years. In total, around 1.5 million current and former students still have student debt, 60,000 fewer than a year earlier. (TH)

The UvA is introducing a numerus fixus for the English-language track of the Political Science programme starting next academic year. The university announced this in a message on its staff website. As a result, a maximum of 325 students will be admitted to the English-language track. The bilingual track will continue without a limit on the number of students.

The decision is necessary to comply with the self-regulation agreements made by Dutch universities to limit the intake of international students. Due to “growing interest” among international students in the Political Science programme, adjustments are now needed to achieve “a better balance between Dutch and international students and to safeguard the quality of education”.

The UvA is also tightening the numerus fixus for the English-language tracks of Economics and Business Economics (550) and Business Administration (500). (DH)

On Saturday 3 October, the annual Science Weekend will take place at the UvA. Visitors can learn about how science works through experiments, meetings with scientists, workshops and lectures at three locations across the UvA.

At the Amsterdam Science Park, visitors can take a look inside the laboratories and workshops of the UvA’s Faculty of Science, Mathematics and Computer Science (FNWI) and the research institutes AMOLF, ARCNL, CWI and Nikhef. An electric train will take visitors to the various locations. The UvA University Library is also taking part for the first time this year, and just round the corner, the Allard Pierson Museum is open to visitors once again.

The national Science Weekend takes place annually during the first weekend of October. The aim of the event is to make science and technology accessible to a wide audience, “particularly at a time when science and scientific facts are increasingly the subject of public debate”.

All three venues will open their doors between 12.00 and 17.00. Admission is free. (SvdB)

Intruders, threats with a bladed weapon and broken locks. Residents of a student accommodation complex at Science Park feel unsafe, and repairs to the locks by the landlord, Duwo, are reportedly taking a long time. This was reported by the Amsterdam daily Het Parool today. “I’ve had extra locks fitted myself,” said one of the affected students. The complex houses 900 students, who have been plagued by intruders since August. “We’re being sent from pillar to post,” says resident Nikki Eng, chair of the residence committee, in the newspaper. “Duwo refers us to the police, and the police refer us back to Duwo to tackle the security issue.”

Eng says that two repeat intruders are consistently recognised: one wears sunglasses, whilst the other is constantly spotted taking photographs of doors. According to the students, these are “structural problems” that Duwo is failing to resolve, particularly as there is reportedly no surveillance. Duwo says that the complaints are indeed being addressed. According to the spokesperson, some of the reports do not concern faulty doors, “but escape routes that must always remain accessible”. (DW)

Maastricht University has suspended a Gazan student following a video in which he claims to have been involved in Hamas’s attacks on 7 October 2023. In the video, he says “this is me” while looking at masked jihadists. The video was posted on social media but has since been removed. The NOS reports this.

According to the police, the student has not committed a criminal offence in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, Maastricht University has decided to exclude him from education for the time being. It is now considering whether, and under what conditions, he can continue his studies. (TH)

Radboud University (RU) in Nijmegen will no longer allow the Groot-Nederlandse Studentenvereniging (GNSV) to take part in the next introduction fair for new students. This was reported by Omroep Gelderland. The decision follows an analysis by intelligence and security services NCTV and AIVD, which classified GNSV as far-right.

In the report “Behind the Facade”, the security services NCTV and AIVD write that the student association – which is also active in Leiden and Utrecht – presents itself publicly as national-conservative, but that behind the scenes, members hold much more extreme views.

GNSV was already absent from this year’s introduction fair in Nijmegen, but this was for security reasons. According to De Gelderlander, the safety of participants at the introduction fair could not be sufficiently guaranteed if GNSV were present, after protest group Nijmegen Student Encampment announced a demonstration against the far-right association. (DH)

Hungary has been given the green light by the European Commission (EC) to fully participate again in the EU’s Erasmus+ exchange programme and Horizon research programme. The country had been excluded from the programmes since 2022 because of the political control exercised by the Fidesz party of former prime minister Viktor Orbán over education. The European Commission now believes that, following the electoral victory of the Tisza party and new prime minister Péter Magyar, Hungary has made sufficient progress.

Earlier this year, it was already announced that Hungarian students would once again be allowed to take part in Erasmus+. With this decision, researchers can now also participate in Horizon again.

Following the EU sanctions, the UvA itself also cut ties with the affected Hungarian universities on the advice of the Committee on Cooperation with Third Parties. “This is because the restriction of academic freedom in Hungary goes very far,” then rector magnificus Peter-Paul Verbeek said at the time. It is still unclear whether the university is now open to renewing ties with Hungarian institutions. (DH)

Every month, around two to three hundred items of clothing are rejected prematurely at the UMCG hospital in Groningen. That amounts to approximately three thousand per year. In three-quarters of the cases, the cause is ink stains from ballpoint pens that have been left on a nurse’s or doctor’s coat, a hospital spokesperson told the daily Dagblad van het Noorden. Furthermore, the hospital states that damage is mainly caused by other materials left behind, such as stickers and glue residue, chewing gum and lipstick. According to the spokesperson, objects such as scissors can also ruin the clothing. The UMCG is not the only hospital where uniforms are discarded due to ink stains. In Dutch hospitals, hundreds of uniforms end up in the bin every week, reported RTL Nieuws. A single forgotten ballpoint pen or marker can contaminate an entire washing machine load. The UMCG is set to take action. (DW)

Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted unanimously in favour of the amendment to the Archives Act, which is intended to enable the publication of the Central Archive for Special Judicial Proceedings (CABR). The amendment introduces the option, subject to the approval of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, to make government archives containing special and criminal personal data available in digital form. This may put an end to the years of delay in the plans of the National Archives, the custodian of the CABR. The bill must, however, still pass through the Senate.  (MH)