A large part of the money saved by phasing out student grants will be used to pay for more teachers at HBO colleges and universities.

Education minister Jet Bussemaker will announce the move in a strategic agenda on higher education which she will present on Tuesday, the Volkskrant reports.

In May, when the minister was considering the move, she said the money would pay for over 4,000 new teachers.

The government is currently phasing out student grants and replacing them with loans which will free up €620m of the education budget in the long term. More than half of this amount will be ploughed back into the quality of the education on offer by increasing the number of teachers.

Smaller classes

Extra teachers will allow HBO colleges and universities to make classes smaller in size and more intensive. Student numbers have increased so much over the past few years that students complain about a lack of attention.

Bussemaker says increasing the number of teachers will allow an more contact with students. She thinks higher education is currently too much a question of ‘sending knowledge’, while what is necessary is for students to develop themselves. ‘After all, it is the leaders of the future who are being educated,’ she says.

The minister also wants HBO colleges and universities to differentiate themselves more, although she does not say how.