All Caribbean students who continue their studies in the Netherlands will receive a citizen service number (Burgerservicenummer, BSN) starting next year. Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Robbert Dijkgraaf, announced this today during a debate in the Second Chamber about bureaucratic obstacles that have a negative effect on the study results of students from the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. Not having a BSN is one of them.

The intention is, that DUO will be given the mandate to award BSNs to Caribbean students. This will be done on the basis of a general administrative measure that can be implemented much faster than by amending the law. In this way, the government meets the motion that MPs De Hoop (PvdA) and Wuite (D66) submitted today. Their two other motions (about a Kingdom Grant and the libraries in the Caribbean Netherlands) could also count on Dijkgraaf’s sympathy.