Rise in the number of international students almost halved

More than 122,000 foreign students are enrolled in full-time higher education in the Netherlands. That is 7 percent more than last year, according to Nuffic, the Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education (link in Dutch, Ed.). This marks a rupture in relation to the trend seen in previous years. In the last academic year, the average growth was 12 percent.

One of the reasons given by Nuffic is that international students entitled to the basic student grant, which will be reintroduced next year, prefer to wait to start their studies, much like their Dutch counterparts.

Brexit and the Ukraine war
According to the report, Brexit makes it less attractive for British students to study in the Netherlands. This academic year, more than 1,800 British nationals are studying in the Netherlands, which is 42 percent fewer than before the UK left the European Union. The United Kingdom used to be among the top ten countries sending students to the Netherlands, but it has now fallen to the 17th place.

Other issues play a role as well, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which led to a rise in the number of Ukrainian students in the Netherlands. There are now 1,059 students with that nationalitt, which is 47 percent more than in 2021-22.

Top five
The vast majority of foreign students in the Netherlands comes from Germany, which has had the first place for quite some time. Italy comes second once again, followed by China and Romania. Newcomer Spain is replacing Belgium in the top ten.

One in seven students in the Netherlands is from abroad. They come from 167 different countries and 25 percent of them are from a country inside the European Economic Area, which does not include the UK and Switzerland.

Around 85,000 international students are currently attending a research university and nearly 37,000 are studying at a university of applied sciences.

Popular
At university of applied sciences, study programmes in the field of economics attract the most foreign students. Percentage-wise, the field of Language and Culture draws the highest number. At research universities, study programmes in the Behavioural & Social Sciences sector are the most popular. In relative terms, however, university colleges have the biggest percentage of international students.

In absolute terms, the University of Amsterdam has the largest number of international students. The only university of applied sciences in the top ten is Fontys. But Maastricht University heads the list in relative terms: more than half of the university’s student body comes from abroad. Only the study programmes with 2,000 students or more have been included in the top ten in terms of relative numbers.

Bron: Nuffic

Van de kleinere instellingen hebben de kunstopleidingen het grootste aandeel internationals. Bij de Design Academy in Eindhoven komt bijna 80 procent van de studenten uit het buitenland, bij de Hogeschool der Kunsten in Den Haag is dat 67 procent en bij de Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam 65 procent.  

Meer regie
De politiek moedigt de komst van internationale studenten niet langer aan. Met een nieuwe wet wil onderwijsminister Robbert Dijkgraaf de toestroom van internationale studenten in banen leiden. Hij stuurt aan op meer centrale regie en ziet graag dat buitenlandse studenten een beetje Nederlands leren.

In de afgelopen twee decennia is het aantal internationale studenten verdubbeld. Critici waarschuwen voor overvolle collegezalen, hoge werkdruk bij docenten, gebrek aan huisvesting, de afnemende toegankelijkheid van opleidingen en de teloorgang van het Nederlands als academische taal.