In NL the govt switched from a scholarship-like student loan program to a regular loan program (which has been reverted since the start of this college year), and students racked up 60k debts over 4-5 years of study.

And that’s in a country where the government also sets the student fees (2k a year now, somewhat following indexed inflation), which means about 8-10k is for study. The rest is additional cost and due to stories of low interest (0% for years, but now it’s 2.4%) causing 18-22 year olds to be maxing out this loan to enjoy the student life and paying it off using the bank interest.

Then the 2021-23 inflation skyrocketed and that loan started going up faster than it could be paid off, as paying off is on an income-based monthly amount. Meanwhile, this loan does get subtract 1.5x from your potential mortgage sum.

Edit: all prices in EUR of course