Canva - Person Holding 10 and 10 Banknotes

In order to budget effectively, you need to familiarize yourself with the costs and expenses that are awaiting you in the (near) future. Yet, many people are just living from day to day and hope for the best, which puts them on an involuntary instant noodles diet at the end of each month.

Far easier would be of course if you have an overview of what costs you can expect when you live in the Netherlands. To help you out with this, we have listed various financial costs and allowances that you can expect when living in the Netherlands so you can set your budget beforehand.

University costs

One of the first expenses that you will incur as a student is, of course, the university tuition fee. In the Netherlands, Swiss, EU/EEA and Surinam students are lucky when it comes to tuition fees because they pay the same amount of money as Dutch students – about €2.000 per year. This also counts if you have a first-degree family member from the EU who lives in the Netherlands. If you are a student from any other country, the tuition fee is much higher, ranging from €9.000 to €16.000 per year.

Besides the tuition fee, you might need to pay for study books. If you have not received your booklist(s) yet, it is smart to reach out to your teacher(s) in advance. This way you can ask them whether their former students are willing to sell their used books or if they can recommend a source to get your books from. If they don’t recommend anything in particular, you will find most (second hand) books on Bol, Marktplaats or Bookmatch.

In our experience, international students spend around €150 per quarter for new books, and about €80 if they opt for used ones.