Samenvatting

As the government states that current students have a loan aversion, more students in my opinion seem to make more use of the loan services of the Informatie Beheer Groep (IBG). That was my starting point before I began this thesis. My point of view concerning student loans was that students do loan more than before and that they do not realize the consequences of a student debt until after their studies. The central question therefore in this thesis is "To what extent is the current communication of the IBG regarding the consequences of a student debt sufficient for students?"
After I have done research my opinion is that the loan aversion does not have the upper hand, but poor knowledge about having a debt is essential for the behaviour of these students towards getting a loan. Nowadays students are used to luxury and this is the main reason that they get a loan and not to finance their study which is the aim of Mr Rutte.( former State Secretary)
The difficulty of this issue is that there are two different perspectives. On the one hand the negative perspective of the consequences of a student debt and on the other hand the positive perspective of the government.
According to the students the consequences of having a student debt are generally seen as negative, because they cannot see it as an investment in themselves at the moment. They think it has great influence in their future when they are restricted in their finance when paying off their debt. The word debt is negatively loaded and it will be difficult to change this image of a student debt amongst students.
But according to the Ministry of OCW (The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science) this can be changed positively. First of all, the communication concerning the consequences of a student debt is not seen as a task of the IBG; it has a neutral position in this issue. They are the informative and executive organ when students decide to require a student loan and are responsible for other services they provide. But instead the Ministry of OCW is and will be responsible for the communication regarding this issue. The communication of their point of views is not received by the students. This is perhaps because the communication is seemly vague and more the point of view of the government. It was not clear to me, before carrying out this research, if the points of views of the government regarding the consequences of a student debt are clear to students, the government has to communicate more and clearer.