Total student debt for current and former students (1.6 million people) rose to 28.2 billion euros at the beginning of this year. This represents an increase of 1.7 billion euros compared to the previous year, according to reports from the Central Bureau of Statistics.

The debt increases every year, and has more than doubled since the loan system was implemented in 2015. As of the current academic year, the loan system has stopped and the basic scholarship for higher education students has returned.

After years of increasing, the number of people with student debt has remained roughly the same since 2021. This year, more than 330,000 people had student debt of more than €30,000. This is 26,000 more than the previous year and 215,000 more than in 2015.

More than 120,000 people had student debt of more than €50,000, and 1,800 of them had debt of more than €100,000. For half of people with student debt, the debt is less than €10,000.

The age group with the largest student debt is the 25- to 30-year-old group, which is already paying it off. The average debt there is 22,900 euros.

It was announced yesterday that starting next year the interest on student debt will be more than five times what it is now. The interest rate will rise from 0.46 to 2.56 percent, the highest level in fourteen years. This increase comes as a result of the increase in interest that the government itself has to pay to borrow money.