Pre-investments (2015–2017)

Research universities and universities of applied sciences have agreed to collectively invest an extra €200 million in the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 in anticipation of the income from the student loan system that will gradually become available from 2018 onwards. In this way, the first student cohorts to be affected by the student loan system will also benefit from the resulting investment in educational quality. Investment will be made in three areas: educational quality, modern infrastructure and teaching-related research.

 
The universities can afford to commit these funds as they know that from 2018 onwards, structural investment from the government will become available. This investment involves both new plans, and existing plans that the universities will now implement sooner or with a greater scope than they had originally planned.
 

For the universities, this means around €67 million per year at the sectoral level. The exact details will be determined at the institutional level in consultation with representative advisory bodies. Different institutions may focus on different matters, depending on the university's priorities and starting position.