Two entirely separate tuition systems operate side by side, and only one of them is capped by the government. Applicants comparing programmes across universities are often startled to find the same subject priced several times higher for them than for an EU classmate sitting in the same lecture hall.
Two completely different pricing systems apply depending on your passport, and only one of them is capped by the government. The wettelijk collegegeld (statutory tuition) is what the Dutch state sets for EU/EEA, Swiss and UK students, and it's the same figure everywhere — €2,694 for 2026-2027, regardless of which university or programme you pick. Anyone who doesn't qualify for that rate — most non-EU/EEA students — pays instellingscollegegeld (institutional tuition) instead, set individually by each university's board rather than the government, with no cap. It typically runs somewhere between roughly €10,000 and €25,000+ a year depending on the institution and whether it's a bachelor's or a (often pricier) master's, with technical and science programmes generally costing more than humanities. The reasoning universities give is that the statutory rate is subsidised by Dutch public funding that non-EU students' home governments don't contribute to, so institutional tuition is meant to cover the actual teaching cost. In practice it's also become a lever universities use to manage non-EU intake, since raising institutional tuition dampens applications without needing a formal cap. Always check the exact figure on your specific programme's page — it varies by institution even for the same subject.