According to a new study, the number of international students enrolling in Dutch universities has fallen — for the first time since the pandemic’s initial dip.
Commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Education, DUO’s updated trend report highlights declining international enrolment in full-time Bachelor’s programmes for the 2024/2025 academic year.
Dutch is now a priority in higher education
Although the current academic year is seeing a decline, the report points out that the number of foreign students in the Netherlands doubled over the past ten years.
With a peak of nearly 30,000 foreign students per year from 2022-2024, the Dutch government has proposed several measures to better manage the surge, such as the Balanced Internationalisation Act.
READ MORE | Slashing international student numbers could cost the Netherlands billions, report finds
Using tools such as a limit on the number of places for non-EEA students and a targeted numerus fixus (enrolment cap for study programmes), the proposed bill aims to provide more space for Dutch students amidst the influx.
According to the bill, the “principle of ‘Dutch, unless’ remains explicitly central” to higher education in the Netherlands, with a heavy emphasis on more Dutch-language education and fewer English-taught programmes.
The language of instruction also plays a bigger role
In contrast to five years ago, whether or not Dutch is the language of instruction now has an increasingly decisive influence on a student’s choice of BA programme.
For first-year students in the 2024/2025 academic year, roughly a quarter indicated that the fact their programme was taught in Dutch played “a major role” in their course selection.
In contrast to Dutch, the “role of the English language seems to be becoming less important.”
Only a quarter of the students surveyed indicated that English instruction was a factor in their course selection — compared to a little more than a third over five years ago.
Are you an international student in the Netherlands, or a concerned Dutch citizen? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
