Students travelling abroad more frequently

Before the coronavirus pandemic broke out, around 25 percent of students enrolled in Bachelor's or Master's programmes in the Netherlands spent a few months abroad taking courses at another institution. They were 'credit mobile', as people say in Dutch academia.

The lockdowns that marked the pandemic made such trips more difficult and less attractive. In the 2021/2022 academic year, only 11 per cent of graduates from universities and universities of applied sciences had taken courses abroad at some point during their studies – probably before the pandemic broke out.

That percentage has now risen to 17 per cent of graduates, according to Statistics Netherlands (Dutch acronym: CBS). That is one in six students.

University students are more likely to go abroad during their Bachelor's degree (22 per cent of them do so) than during their Master's degree, when the number of students spending a few months on exchange goes down to 14 per cent. Only 17 percent of Bachelor's students enrolled in universities of applied sciences have spent some time abroad, and that number drops to nearly zero at the Master's level and among those in two-year advanced vocational programmes.

The most mobile group in higher education are international students at universities of applied sciences. They come to the Netherlands to pursue an entire Bachelor's programme and retain their wanderlust: 28 per cent earn part of their credits in another country. 

The difference between Dutch students and international students is slightly smaller at research universities, but international students are still more likely to take a course abroad than Dutch students: 25 per cent versus 21 per cent. The figures are closer at universities' master's programmes: 13 and 14 per cent.

Entire degree programme
These figures do not include Dutch students taking a full degree programme abroad. That's approximately 2 per cent of Dutch students. Belgium is the most popular destination among this group, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.