{"id":9849,"date":"2023-09-22T11:43:10","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T09:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?p=9849"},"modified":"2023-11-14T10:18:10","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T09:18:10","slug":"the-price-of-education-welcome-to-the-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/9849\/the-price-of-education-welcome-to-the-netherlands\/","title":{"rendered":"The price of Education: Welcome to the Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Netherlands, a land of opportunity and prosperity, welcomed 42 thousand new international students in the previous school year. That is one out of every four students who started in their first semester (according to Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek). Patricia Lepascu from the humble nation of Moldova can empathize with this newcomers and the challenges they face when moving abroad. She arrived in Arnhem, the Netherlands at the onset of the pandemic to pursue her dreams in product design.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Moldova I already had some experience in fine arts, and my brother lived in Germany, so I looked at opportunities to move abroad as well. The Netherlands have promising design programs so that\u2019s why I came to Arnhem\u201d Patricia stated. \u201cI quickly gained admission to Artez University and they also provided housing for me in Arnhem for the first year\u201d.<\/p>\n
In Moldova, attaining a higher education often demands a strong sense of self-reliance. In the schoolyear of 2021\/22 there were only 110 Moldovan students in the Netherlands, a stark contrast to the numbers from other European countries. \u201cMy parents really supported me and my brother, but financially it was a heavy weight on my family\u201d said Patricia. *\u201cI tried to apply for the monthly support that Dutch and other students get since the beginning of this schoolyear, something EU-citizens probably get easier access to.\u201d Scholarships and financial aid proved to be complex to secure, forcing Patricia to navigate the labyrinth of funding her education in Arnhem. Her application was rejected due to an incorrect residence permit type.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinancially I\u2019m almost entirely dependent on the support of my parents and my hardworking brother, they cover my tuition and rent expenses\u201d Patricia explained. \u201cI do have a part-time job next to my study but to give you a good comparison with Moldova my hourly payment is as much as my parents earn in a full day of working.\u201d \u201cBack in Moldova, my parents, like many others, cultivated vegetables on their own land. I brought that to the Netherlands as well with taking care of my own plants.\u201d \u201cMy parents were compelled to sell their land to repay loans from relatives that had been used for my and my brothers study, it caused difficulties in the relationships between family members.\u201d<\/p>\n