Number of international students growing less and less

The influx of first-year students from abroad grew a little bit, by 2.6 percent. The rise is attributed to Master's degrees and programmes offered by universities of applied sciences, not to Bachelor's degrees at research universities, which has seen a 0.6-percent drop – the first drop in twenty years.

The number of first-year students coming from countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) has remained stable for the past two years. Last year, Nuffic predicted that many European students would postpone their studies in the Netherlands to benefit from the basic student grant, a benefit that was reintroduced in 2023. But that prediction didn't come true. The number of international students from non-European countries has grown by 8.8 percent.

Now, 26.4 percent of students in the Netherlands come from abroad, of whom 8.2 percent are enrolled in universities of applied sciences. The rest is studying at research universities.  

Language
Nuffic considered the language of instruction for the first time in this year's report. 16.2 percent of research university students are actually enrolled in a Dutch-taught programme.

"However, not all classes in these programmes are ministered in Dutch," explains Nuffic researcher Saoradh Favier. "But you must speak Dutch at a certain level to be able to follow them." Most students in Dutch-taught programmes come from Germany, Italy and France.

China
The number of enrolments from China is remarkable: it grew by 23 percent – the most significant growth in almost twenty years. In January 2023, China did away with its strict lockdown rules, opening its borders once again. The number of enrolments from Ukraine has risen as well, by 18 percent, in 2023-24.

Although most international students in the Netherlands come from Germany, the number of first-year students from Germany has diminished by 1,400. The Netherlands has also seen fewer and fewer students from the UK. In 2020-21, the last academic year before Brexit, roughly 1,300 students enrolled in Dutch universities, but that number has since dropped to 477.

Institutions
The University of Amsterdam is the research university with the most international students: almost 15,000 or 34.5 percent of its enrollments. Maastricht University comes second, with 13,000 international or 60 percent of its student body.