The National Budget for 2025 – What does it mean for you?
The National Budget for 2025
– What does it mean for you?
On Monday, October 7, at 10:00 a.m., the government’s proposal for the 2025 national budget was presented. The leader of the Norwegian Student Organization (NSO), Kaja Hovdenak, calls the proposal “one of the most student-hostile national budgets we have seen in a long time.” Tuntreet has rephrased the proposal from Greek to Norwegian, so you too can understand what the budget means for you as a student.
Journalist: Kine Lie
Illustrator: Ingvild Sperstad
Translator: Ingrid Bjørnevik Nygaard
Full-time student or part-time worker?
Many students find themselves needing to apply for a part-time job alongside full-time studies to make ends meet, or to save money for a life after graduation. NSO works tirelessly to secure higher financial support for students, but this has not been a priority in this year’s budget. The student financial support is proposed to increase by only 2,9% - that is under 400kr extra per month. At first glance, this might look good – it is after all an increase, right? However, the government has estimated a general price increase of 3%.
With other words, the costs on food, services and living expenses are expected to rise by 3%, while our financial support will only increase by 2,9%. The financial support will therefore not keep pace with general price increases, as wages do, and students’ purchasing power will decline.
NSO wants student support to increase in line with wages, which means in line with general price increases in society. The proposal wage increase in 2025 is 4,5%. Moreover, NSO is expressing that they are now entering into negotiations with the Socialist Left Party (SV) to reverse one of the “one of the most student-hostile national budgets we have seen in a long time.”. Increased student support is not only beneficial for students’ purchasing power and budgets, but also helps prevent mental health issues for students. The stress of financial shortage, and to have to prioritize work over studies, social life and mental and physical health can lead to overworked students with worse mental health, according to NSO.
Removing student debt
The government wants to encourage new graduates to move to the country’s more remote municipalities by offering to remove parts of your student debt. If you work in a remote municipality for at least one year, you can get 25,000 NOK removed from your student debt. It is even better if you move to Nord-Troms and Finnmark, where you can get 60,000 NOK removed. Various news stories shows that students are considering it, but are planning to move away again shortly after that one year. Therefore, one may question how effective this measure is. However, some will probably stay longer than initially planned, as you can meet a partner or get other work offers in the area. Its seems that the government hopes that many will change their minds.
Payment for exams
One of the most controversial aspects of next year’s budget among students is that the government wants to allow educational institutions to charge students to retake an exam. Students who want to improve their grade can therefore be required to pay the university to retake an exam in the subject. The student leader at NMBU Oskar Lægland calls this a “total miss”. According to him, we are now seeing a gradual introduction of costs to study and is worried that the principle of free education is being watered down.
In 2023 we saw an introduction of tuition fees for national students. The fee applies for students who come from countries outside EU/EEA. A two-year master’s degree for a student outside of EU/EEA can now cost up to one million NOK, and universities and now experiencing fewer international students in their classes. Critics of the new tuition fee argue that student culture is becoming less diverse due to the new fee, and that this draws in the wealthiest rather than the brightest students.
What happens next?
The national budget is, as mentioned, only a proposal from the government, and must be further reviewed by the Parliament. The government’s proposal is also called “yellow book” (gul bok). In October and November, the budget will be reviewed by the Finance Committee and various specialized committees. Here, interest organizations like NSO can try to influence the negotiations by presenting their viewpoints in what are called “hearings”. By November 20th, the Finance Committee must have submitted its recommendations to the parliament, which will start the “finance debate”. During the finance debate, the parliament will decide how the budget will be allocated to various sectors, and each specialized committee is given a spending framework to distribute among different purposes. In the Educational and Research committee, students will fight for funding alongside kindergartens and schools.
On December 15th the final student budget will be adopted, and this will take effect from January 1st. This is called «blue book» (blå bok). We will then know the exact consequence of the national budget will be for students in 2025. Throughout the next year, there will also be ongoing changes in the budget.
