AMSTERDAM--Students who have exceeded the six-year study term as stipulated in their agreement with the St. Maarten Government will not continue to receive financial assistance from the St. Maarten Student Support Services S4 in 2012.
The decision to implement the legal agreement between student and government is a result of cost-cutting measures by St. Maarten's Government. Some 110 older students who have been studying for six years or more will be affected. S4 has informed the group of the decision by letter which the students have already received or will receive shortly.
The students in question may continue to receive Dutch study financing from DUO, if they qualify, but from now on they will not receive 500 Euros to buy study books at the start of the academic year and they will have to pay their own health insurance.
St. Maarten students coming to the Netherlands sign two loan agreements, one with the St. Maarten Government and one with the Dutch DUO, explained S4 Director Marva Richardson in an interview with The Daily Herald.
The agreement with DUO concerns Dutch study financing of a monthly maximum amount of a little over 900 Euro. The agreement with St. Maarten is actually a decree and concerns supplementary financial assistance in the form of 500 euro book money and health insurance.
First year students receive additional financial assistance. S4 pays their ticket to the Netherlands, students receive 400 euro start-up money, 800 euro computer money, S4 arranges housing, pre-finances the first month rent and supplies 550 euro to help cover August before the students receive study financing from DUO in September.
New students are also extensively guided the first month and have a mentor for the first year. Richardson estimates that new students cost around 7,000 Euro in the first year. After that, the individual cost per student goes down.
The agreement that students sign with the St. Maarten Government covers a maximum period of six years, which means that after that period students are not entitled to financing anymore.
The agreement not only defines rights, but also responsibilities that students have towards S4 and government. Students have to send their study results to S4 on a regular basis to prove that they are still attending classes. If students fail to do so, they will not receive book money and eventually they will be thrown out of the collective student insurance package.
Students who do well and complete their studies within the stipulated time are rewarded. S4 helps to cover their ticket for their internship abroad and students, who want to return to St. Maarten within six months of completing their studies, may under certain conditions also receive a ticket back home. Student who lose a family member to the first or second degree receive a ticket to attend the funeral in St. Maarten.
S4 has to report on the students' progress to the St. Maarten Government. Students switch studies often and on some occasions do not complete their studies. Yet, many times they fail to inform S4 about this.
Government wants to get a better grip on its students in the Netherlands and limit the financial loss of paying for students that do not go to school anymore, explained Richardson.
"Being a country means more responsibilities and more cost. Government has to cut cost where it can," said Richardson.
The measure to implement the six-year term will save government about 200,000 Euro per year. St. Maarten currently has 477 students in the Netherlands of which some 110 have been studying longer than six years.
Government from now on will keep students to the six-year limit. The letter that has gone out informs students that they have exceeded the six-year term and therefore no longer have a right to book money and that they will have to pay their own health insurance. Health insurance is compulsory in the Netherlands. The measure goes into effect immediately.
