Black and white printouts twice as expensive

The price for printing at the RUG is going up: the cost of a black and white printout will double.

This was recently decided by the Board of the University. Students will have to pay 3 cents for a printout; this used to be just 1.6 cents. The price of a colour printout will go from 5.7 cents to 6.5 cents.

Student faction Lijst Calimero is not happy with the ‘large’ increase and asked the board for an explanation. According to board member Jan de Jeu, the price hike is not because the university wants to turn a profit or discourage students from printing excessively. ‘The costs of the printouts are partially paid for by the faculties. And we want to achieve more balance in what faculties pay and what students pay.’

The university scoped out other educational institutes to see what they charged for printouts. It turned out the RUG was the cheapest by far. ‘We decided to bring that up to the minimum’, says De Jeu.

Lijst Calimero asked the Board of the University to implement the change gradually. But De Jeu wants nothing of the sort. ‘It is, in all respects, still a very reasonable price that students should be able to afford, especially when you see the prices they’d have to pay elsewhere.’

Some commercial print shops in the city centre charge approximately 8 cents for a black and white printout, and a colour printout even costs 50 cents.

02-02-2016