THE HAGUE - The cabinet is allocating half a million euros to provide so-called Kingdom scholarships, aimed at increasing the temporary exchange of students within the Kingdom. According to the spring memorandum - with adjustments to the budget for this year - 500,000 euros will be made available for this purpose. This is in response to the motion submitted by Members of Parliament Jorien Wuite (D66) and Habtamu de Hoop (PvdA) in February 2022. During the Four-Country Education Meeting in Willemstad in January, the education ministers of Curaçao, Aruba, and Sint Maarten agreed to Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf's proposal to introduce a Kingdom scholarship. It is unknown whether the Caribbean countries will contribute financially to the fund.
With the new scholarship, young people from the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom can more easily pursue further education at vocational, higher education, and university levels, or internships in the Netherlands or on any of the other islands. Currently, students from Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius can use the Erasmus+ program scholarship to study in all European countries except the Netherlands. This is now being rectified.
Several studies, including one by the National Ombudsman, have shown that many Caribbean students face additional barriers when pursuing further education in the Netherlands. The reasons lie both in the preparatory education in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom and in the further education in the Netherlands. Therefore, work is also being done on the introduction of a preparatory 'Caribbean academic orientation year'.
The Spring Memorandum does not provide clear information on the amounts reserved for the coming years.