Growth in number of international students cut almost in half
The number of foreign students in Dutch higher education rose by seven percent this academic year, much less than in previous years. The basic scholarship, Brexit, and the war in Ukraine all played a role.
Over 122,000 foreign students are attending a full degree program in the Netherlands. That is seven percent more than last year, according to new research by Nuffic, the internationalization organization for education. This breaks with the trend of previous years. Just the last academic year, the growth rate was 12 percent.
One of the reasons cited by Nuffic is that some international students, similar to Dutch students, prefer to start their studies next academic year to take advantage of the new basic grant.
Brexit and the Ukraine War
According to the report, Brexit makes it less attractive for British students to study in the Netherlands. Over 1,800 Britons are studying in the Netherlands this academic year, a 42 percent decrease from the period before Britain's exit from the European Union. The United Kingdom was previously in the top 10 but has now dropped to seventeenth place.
Other developments also play a role. For example, the Russian invasion of Ukraine led to an increase in the number of Ukrainian students in the Netherlands. There are now 1,059, 47 percent more than in 2021-22.
Top five
Dutch higher education is still most popular among German students. Italy is again number two, followed by China and Romania. New to the top five is Spain, which displaces Belgium from fifth place.
Of all higher education students, one in seven is now international. They come from 167 different countries and a quarter of them from the European Economic Area. The UK and Switzerland, for example, are not among them.
Some 85,000 international students are currently attending university and nearly 37,000 are studying at colleges.
Popular
In higher education, programs in the economics domain attract the most foreign students. In percentage terms, the Language and Culture domain scores the highest. Among universities, programs in the Behavioural and Social Sciences sector are the most popular, although university colleges count the most international students, relatively speaking.
The University of Amsterdam still has the most international students in absolute numbers. Fontys is the only university college in the top 10. But relatively speaking, Maastricht University tops the list: there, more than half the student population is international. The top 10 with relative numbers only include programs with 2,000 students or more.
Of the smaller institutions, art schools have the largest proportion of international students. At the Design Academy in Eindhoven, nearly 80 percent come from abroad, at the Hogeschool der Kunsten in The Hague it is 67 percent, and at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam 65 percent.
More direction
Politicians no longer encourage international students to study in the Netherlands. With a new law, Education Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf wants to control the influx of international students. He is pushing for a more central direction and would like to see foreign students learn some Dutch.
Over the past two decades, the number of international students has doubled. Critics warn of overcrowded lecture halls, a high workload among teachers, a lack of housing, the decreasing accessibility of programs, and the decline of Dutch as an academic language.
