Number of freshers keeps falling

Approximately 56,000 bachelor's students enrolled at Dutch universities in 2025. That is 3.4 percent less than last year. This is the fifth year in a row that the number of first-year students has decreased in the Netherlands. The drop is seen both among Dutch students (3.3 percent less) and international students (3.6 percent less).

Dutch students
Bachelor's programs in Law are the only ones that have seen an increase in the number of Dutch first-year students. Programmes in the Humanities and Social Sciences remained the same, while all other programmes have seen a decline. 

According to the Association of Dutch Universities (UNL), the drop is explained by fewer pre-university students having completed that phase and gone on to enrol in a degree programme.  In addition, pre-university students are increasingly likely to take a gap year.

International students
The number of international freshers also fell, by 3.6 percent. The drop is driven by students from other European countries, who are less likely to choose a bachelor's degree in the Netherlands.

The demissionary Schoof cabinet aimed to reduce the number of international students through a new law that would introduce a “language test” to assess whether English-taught programmes had to be taught in English after all. If the programmes didn't pass the test, they would have to switch back to Dutch. However, the new coalition has decided to pull the plug on this plan.

Sectors facing labour shortages, such as engineering and health, have attracted more international students. Nearly one in five international students who started a bachelor's degree in the Netherlands in 2025 chose an engineering programme.

The University of Amsterdam (UvA) remains the largest university in the Netherlands, but it welcomed 600 fewer first-year students than in 2024.

In 2025, 6,390 bachelor's-level freshers were enrolled at UU, compared to 6,483 in 2024. If one only measures enrolments at the bachelor's level, UU is the most popular university among first-year students after UvA.

UU announced its preliminary figures late last year. Those figures were based on a 5 percent decrease in the number of bachelor's students, so it looks like the decline is not as bad as expected.

© HOP, Source: UNL

Decline
A total of 332,000 students are enrolled at Dutch universities, if one considers both the bachelor's and master's levels. Of those, approximately 91,000 are international students. Last year, the total number of students was 338,000.

UNL is concerned about the decline. “Without a strategy to invite talent, we are undermining our academia, innovation, and economy,” says UNL chair Caspar van den Berg.

Top talent
The coalition parties have included such a talent strategy in their agreement. “Universities and universities of applied sciences will be given more opportunities to attract top international talent and retain talent,” write the coalition parties D66, CDA, and VVD.

However, the three parties consider it important to “control” the influx of international students and aim to firm “binding administrative agreements” with educational institutions in this regard.