During the Parliamentary hearing on the social loan system for Master’s degrees Minister Bussemaker said that he would be postponing the introduction of the scheme until at least 1 September 2015. The major reason for this U-turn is the desire of a majority of political parties and teaching and student organisations to hear this Bill in conjunction with the loan system for Bachelor’s degrees and public transport cards. VSNU Chairman Karl Dittrich: ‘Postponing the loan system also means postponing major investments that are needed to give impetus to the quality of education and research.’

The future of the loan system remains unclear and that is not something we would wish for, for the students or for the universities. The universities want to use the proceeds of the loan system to invest in the small-scale nature of education, more intensive supervision of students, programmes of excellence, study facilities and digitalisation. VSNU Chairman Karl Dittrich: ‘We therefore hope that procrastination will not be the thief of time, which we don't anticipate it will be.’