Danish students join European protest wave against education funding cuts

Thousands of young people in Denmark have demonstrated against a government plan to cut student stipends under a decades-long allowance scheme, adding to a wave of youth unrest across Europe.

Organisers said up to 13,000 students marched from Copenhagen’s city hall square to parliament over proposed cuts to free up funds for defence spending on Monday, under the banner “Enough is Enough”.

The rally echoed student protests in France that spread to other European countries in recent weeks, and that morphed into wider grievances over the cost of living and housing crises impacting young people across the continent.

Student associations said some 40,000 students were on strike at 57 schools across Denmark over the proposed cuts.

Since 1970, all students enrolled in schools or university in Denmark over the age of 18 have automatically received the student allowance regardless of their parents’ income.

Students currently receive 1,154 kroner ($173) a month for those who live with their parents, and 7,426 kroner ($1,116) for those who live on their own.

Under the new government proposal, the allowance would be abolished for students living with parents earning over 700,000 Danish kroner ($105,248).

Only students living with parents earning between 419,589 kroner ($63,087) and 700,000 kroner ($105,248) a year would be eligible for the allowance, with stipends staggered based on their parents’ income.

Copenhagen police were out in force during the demonstration.

Thousands of young people chanted “Broken Promises” and carried signs reading “Save SU”, the Danish acronym for the student allowance, “Less Support, Less Educated” and “Don’t Cheat the Young”.

“In Denmark, we get funding and economic support for getting an education, and we’re very proud of this,” said one protest organiser, Danish High School Students Association president Oscar Tonsberg Hoffmann.

He told AFP that it would be wrong to dismantle “one of the world’s strongest educational systems”.

Kieran Hindshaw, a 23-year-old agronomy student, said he felt betrayed by the government.

“I’m infuriated that we finally get a supposedly ‘red’ government in Denmark that includes the left parties … we get cuts to our welfare and to the economies of young people whilst they’re funding corporate tax reductions and warfare,” he said.

The Higher Education Ministry said around 14,000 students are expected to lose their stipends, and some 8,000 would see it reduced.

The government has also proposed that unemployment benefits for recent university graduates be paid only to those who have worked during 18 of the last 24 months of their studies.

Industry Minister and Social Liberal Party leader Martin Lidegaard has meanwhile said the cuts “are not pleasant decisions”.