Cost of Living

Updated on: 8 March 2021

For many international students, the cost of studying is a big concern. It is wise to plan ahead and make a financial plan for your stay in Wageningen. This article helps get you started.

 

How much does a banana cost?

Maybe not the first question that comes to mind, but students often forget to budget daily groceries. The costs for your everyday hot meal, fruits, rice and snack can add up though. Here’s a quick overview of some items that you may purchase as a student.

• Hot meal on campus (lunch or dinner): € 4,40 – € 10
• Litre of milk: €1,23
• 1 kg of chicken breast: € 8
• Half of a litre of beer: € 4 – € 8
• 1 kg tomatoes: € 1,70
• Chicken wings: € 2,45
• Corn Flakes: € 1,41

Oh, and the bananas are about €1,50 per kilo.

Compare the costs of living?

There are many sites that can help you get an idea of how the costs of living in the Netherlands compare to your home country. We found ‘Numbeo’ one of the most fun tools we could find. It allows you to compare the costs of living with many major cities around the world. Unfortunately, Wageningen isn’t listed on the website, but you can use the nearby city Arnhem instead. We found that groceries are relatively cheap, but eating out is relatively expensive. So be sure to make friends quickly when you arrive in Holland so you can eat together and save money. Within the possibilities of the current Corona measures of course.

Rent

We’re done with all the foodstuff now, so let’s move on to what is going to be one of the biggest monthly expenses: rent. Most international students live in a room offered by the university through Idealis or iNFacilities. Prices differ depending on the location, size of the room, and how many shared facilities you have. Here’s an idea of the rental prices:

• Single room with a shared kitchen/bathroom & toilet (shared): € 255 – € 429
• Single room with own washbasin and a shared kitchen/bathroom & toilet (wash-basin): € 283 – € 422
• Single room with a private kitchen a shared bathroom & toilet (kitchen): € 280 – € 431
• Single room, with private kitchen, bathroom & toilet (self-contained): € 376 – € 420
• Single room with private toilet & shower and shared kitchen: € 407 – € 430

You can check out some rooms available rooms from Idealis through Room.nl, but don’t be quick to register now. Once you are admitted and ready to study at WUR, you will receive information about housing from SSC. For some rooms, you can apply for rent subsidy from the Dutch government. Check out a complete and up-to-date list of rent prices on this website.

Study-related costs

One of the components of your study related costs will be the tuition fees. It depends on your nationality and other conditions how much your fee is. On the tuition fees page, you can find a full and updated overview of the tuition fees and conditions.

You also need books and readers for your study. Finally, something you can actually save a lot of money on. The study store allows you to search for new as well as second-hand books. Make sure to check out Facebook groups for (international) students for others offering second-hand books and readers. But the best way to save money on books is to make lots of friends, from different programmes and years, and ask them if you can borrow their books (cook a nice dinner in return).

Did you know that if you become a member of your study associations, you can often get discounts on books?

Travel

At the moment, due to the coronavirus lockdown measures in the Netherlands, there are some travel restrictions. The government has recommended not to travel abroad and to not book any trips during this period up to 15th April 2021. These travel restrictions might extend far beyond in some form, however, it all depends on how the situation with COVID-19 keeps developing. But the good news is that once travelling is allowed again, there are many nice options to explore:

Train:

Wageningen is located conveniently with major cities like Amsterdam, Utrecht and Arnhem in under an hour away (by train). If you plan to use the train often, you might want to purchase an NS-kortingskaart. This discount card gets you 40% off train tickets outside of rush hours. If you wish to travel by train through Europe, book well in advance to get the best deals or ride along with others:

• Mitfarhzentrale – Mostly Germany
• Blabla car – Ride with others (paid)
• Flixbus – Mostly Europe

Plane:

The discount carriers RyanAir, Easyjet and Transavia all fly from the Netherlands to various (mostly European) destinations. The German airport “Weeze” is not that far from Wageningen and might be an even cheaper option to depart from. On Google Flights you can easily set up alerts for low fares to your favourite destinations.