WILLEMSTAD – While temporary housing has been secured for nearly all first-year Curaçao students traveling to the Netherlands this year, finding accommodation after the first year continues to be one of the biggest challenges they face, according to the Curaçao Student Finance Foundation (SSC).
Students who receive housing through SSC during their first academic year are required to vacate those accommodations to make room for the next group of incoming students.
According to the foundation, about half of the students who traveled to the Netherlands last year have still not found alternative housing. The shortage of affordable independent studio apartments continues to make the search particularly difficult.
To improve their chances of securing accommodation, SSC advises secondary school students to register with Dutch housing providers while they are still completing high school in Curaçao.
The foundation also highlighted another challenge: it is unable to determine exactly how many graduates return to Curaçao after completing their studies.
According to SSC, many graduates choose to remain in the Netherlands because of broader employment opportunities, higher salaries, easier access to housing, and practical advantages such as being able to finance the purchase of a car.
These factors continue to influence the long-term migration of Curaçao graduates, even as the island seeks to encourage more highly educated professionals to return home after completing their studies abroad.