Rent allowance

Specific conditions

1. You can apply for a rent allowance for a VUB room or studio, or a room from one of our partners. (U-Residence, BRU UPKOT, JET UPKOT or rooms rented out by  Brik.) 
    
2. You meet the following academic conditions regarding study progress during the academic year of application:
   • You have to enrol for at least 27 credits during the academic year in which you apply for the rent allowance.
      
   • You are entitled to a rent allowance throughout the nominal study duration of the full-time study programme + one extra academic year. Previous years at the VUB or other higher education institutes in the same or a different area of study are counted as well. For example: 
      
     • A student who enrols in the study programme Sociology, will be entitled to a rent allowance for five years. If that student takes six year to complete the programme, they will not be entitled to a rent allowance in the last (sixth) year.
     • A student who enrols in the study programme Psychology and after two years, switches to History, will be entitled to a rent allowance for the first two years. After switching, the student will still be entitled to a rent allowance for three years, given that the nominal study duration of the History programme is four years and you're entitled to a rent allowance for the nominal study duration + one extra academic year.
     • A student who has graduated from the professional bachelor of Applied Psychology and who then enrols for the preparatory study programme Psychology (60 credits) followed by the Master's in Psychology (120 credits) will be entitled to a maximum of three years of rent allowance at the VUB. The nominal study duration of Psychology is five years. If the student gains the professional bachelor of Applied Psychology in three years, they are entitled at the VUB to three years of rent allowance (nominal study duration + one extra academic year, including previous study years). If this student takes six years to complete the professional bachelor of Applied Psychology, they will no longer be entitled to the rent allowance. 
        

   • From your third year of enrollment at the VUB onwards, you must have achieved a cumulative study efficiency of at least 60% within your current study program to still be entitled to rent allowance. 
     Specifically, at the start of the third enrollment year, we check whether you have achieved a sufficiently high cumulative study efficiency in the previous years:

     • If you are enrolled in several programs at the same time, we only look at the cumulative study efficiency of the program of study with the highest number of credits taken.
     • If you are enrolling in a master's program for the first time in the application year and no results are available for that program yet, we base the assessment on the study program with the highest number of credits from the previous academic year, which is usually the preparatory, bridging, or bachelor's program.
     • If in the previous year you were in the final year of a bachelor's program while also enrolled in a master's program, you will still receive a rental allowance if you obtained your bachelor's degree, even if your study efficiency for the master's credits was below 60%. 
        

     For example: A student who, in the previous academic year, completed 17 credits in their final bachelor's year and 26 credits in the master's program with a study efficiency of 57% will still receive support if they obtained their bachelor's degree.
     
     Important: If a VUB student changes their study program for the first time in their third year, they will still be supported for that third year, even if their cumulative study efficiency was too low in the first two years. For example: A student who studied Educational Sciences at VUB for the first two years and achieved only 47% cumulative study efficiency would normally no longer be eligible for support in the third year. However, if the student switches to Sociology, they will still receive support.

     This criterion is assessed starting from the third year at VUB. If a student has a year with low study efficiency but later achieves a higher efficiency, they may once again become eligible for the rent allowance. This means that a student may temporarily lose the right to this support but can qualify again in a later academic year, if they meet the other requirements.

   • From your third year of enrollment at a higher education institution onwards, you may change your study program only once during your entire higher education career to remain eligible for rent allowance.

     A maximum of one study program change per academic year is counted. Changing to a different higher education institution is also considered a change of study program in this context, even if it is for the same program. However, transitioning from a bachelor’s to a master’s program, even if this involves a change of institution, is not regarded as a study program change in this context.
     
     For example: A student studies Psychology at UGent for one year. After one academic year, the student decides to continue studying Psychology at VUB. This counts as their first study program change. In this academic year, the student is still eligible for a rent allowance. After the first semester, the student switches to Criminological Sciences, but this is not counted as a program change because it occurred within the same academic year. In the following academic year, the student changes to Sociology. This is the second study program change. Since the student is now in their third year of higher education, they are no longer eligible for a rent allowance.

3. If the student's personal or family income includes cadastral income from property owned but not lived in by them, the indexed cadastral income may not exceed € 1.250 euros nor may it be too high in proportion to the other income. Regarding cadastral income, the same rules are applied as the Flemish government uses when allocating a scholarship. 
    

General conditions
 

The general condition to receive financial support from VUB are:

• The student meets one of the nationality requirements established by the Department of Scholarships of the Flemish Community
• the student is enrolled under a diploma contract (students with a credit or exam contract are not eligible) (*) 
• the student is enrolled at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (**) 
• the student is enrolled in an initial study programme: a bachelor, a first master, a bridging or preparatory programme (***)
• the student proves a financial need, related to the study costs
   

(*) Students with a credit contract can be eligible for a reduced tuition fee. Starting academic year 2023-2024, students with a credit contract are also eligible for an interest-free loan to pay their tuition fees.
(**) Students in the first year of their studies should have an enrollment of at least 27 credits in order to apply for a social allowance, rent allowance and external grants. 
(***) Students following a teacher training/Educational Master's or a second academic degree of the same level or students who have already obtained a Master's degree can only qualify for reduced tuition fee and an interest-free student loan. This interest-free student loan is also available for students who are following an advanced Master's degree. 

Don't agree?

 

We evaluate your request and make a decision based on these conditions. If you do not agree with a decision made by our Financial Support team regarding your request for financial support, you can lodge an appeal.



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