Minister Plasterk finds it totally unnecessary that universities and ‘hogescholen’ charge non-European students up to four times the amount for tuition and fees, but he does not intend to forbid it. The adjustment of the compensation for students from outside the European Economic Area is not a cutback, the Minister emphasized in consultation with the student unions. Admittedly the compensation for this Group will as of 2009 be frozen at fifty million Euros per year, but this does not imply that the institutions receive less money. “For this reason they can keep charging a normal sum for tuition and fees.” If they increase them nevertheless, they can compensate the students by giving them knowledge grants.(HOP)