Short | Interest rate on student debt rises sharply again

Interest rate on student debt rises sharply again, reaches highest level in years

Interest rates on student finance and student debt will rise again in 2027. The rate for students and former students repaying their debt over 35 years will increase from 2.33 percent to 2.70 percent, the highest level in years.

The announcement was made Wednesday by student finance provider DUO. For many years, the interest rate on student debt repayments stood at 0 percent, but it has risen considerably in recent years. The rates set for 2026 were the first since 2023 to show a decrease, falling from 2.57 percent to 2.33 percent. For 2027, however, the interest rate will increase substantially, as it is linked to the interest rate the Dutch government pays on its own loans.

Those still covered by the 15-year repayment plan will see an even steeper increase, with the interest rate rising from 2.29 percent to 3.28 percent. Almost all current students, around 895,000, fall under the 35-year repayment plan. Slightly fewer than 5,000 students are covered by the 15-year repayment plan.

Nobel prize in chemistry for controlling mirror-image organic molecules

October 7, 2026 – Some organic molecules are useful, while their mirror images are not. So how do you keep the two apart? This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to a French scientist and a Japanese scientist who succeeded in doing exactly that. Just as a left hand is the mirror image of a right hand, organic molecules in nature often exist in two mirror-image forms. For some molecules, such as amino acids, however, only one of these forms occurs in the human body.

French scientist Henri Kagan and Japanese scientist Kenso Soai have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their research into such organic molecules. The challenge was to create one of the two molecular forms without producing its mirror-image counterpart. In most cases, both forms are generated simultaneously.

Dutch laureates

The very first Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 1901 to a Dutch scientist, Jacobus Henricus van ’t Hoff. Since then, three other Dutch scientists have received the prize, including Groningen professor Ben Feringa ten years ago.

Higher Education Press Agency

Second compensation for students affected by the student loan system

October 6, 2026 - Students who missed out on the basic student grant under the student loan system will receive a second compensation payment from the government. A large majority of the House of Representatives approved the measure on Tuesday.

Students who studied under the student loan system will receive a second compensation payment next year of 44.50 euros for each month they missed out on the basic student grant. For a four-year degree program, that amounts to more than 2,100 euros. The government has set aside 1.4 billion euros for the measure.

This second compensation payment comes on top of the first one, which amounted to almost 1,700 euros for four years without the basic student grant. That measure cost approximately one billion euros.

The government believes the discussion should now be settled, but some opposition parties disagree. They argue that former students should receive full compensation for missing out on the basic student grant.

Hoger Onderwijs Persbureau

Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Belgian scientist

October 6, 2026 - Physicist Francis Halzen has received the Nobel Prize for his neutrino detector in the ice of the South Pole. The detector made it possible to observe particles originating from the depths of the universe.

Halzen (1944) was born in Flanders and studied in Leuven, but has worked in the United States for decades. The last Dutch laureate received the prize in 2010. That was Dutch-British physicist Andre Geim, who grew up in Russia. / HOP, LvA

The news items in this overview were translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.