It’s a tale as old as time — the Dutch complaining about the anglicisation of the Netherlands and the growing number of international students flocking to the country. (While making bank off the latter’s tuition fees. 👀💸)
This year, however, fourteen Dutch universities have prepared a plan of attack against this serious threat: curbing the flow of foreign students and capping the number of English-language courses.
Reprioritising Dutch students is the goal
According to RTL Nieuws, previous efforts to attract international students to the Netherlands did not take into account any of the disadvantages.
In recent years, international students contributed to overcrowded lecture halls, a high workload for teachers and extra pressure on the oversaturated housing market.
As a result, many Dutch students find it hard to secure places at their universities of choice, particularly when foreign students enrol in large numbers.
READ MORE | Why is there a housing shortage in the Netherlands? The Dutch housing crisis explained
The same local students also tend to have a rough go of finding accommodation — with many of the Netherlands’ big cities continuing to face dire housing shortages.
What is the proposed solution?
One important point of consideration outlined in the bill being drafted by Minister of Education Robbert Dijkgraaf is a numerus fixus programme.
In simple terms, this is a fixed limit on the number of students allowed to enrol in a course.
This will be coupled with shelving some of the English-language courses that can be switched entirely to Dutch and expanding the selection of Dutch-language courses.
In addition to this, no new English-language courses will be added for the foreseeable future.
What do you think of the universities’ decision? Tell us all your thoughts in the comments below!
They started bringing in foreign student because the number of Dutch students was declining and they all thought they’d lose their cushy jobs at Universities and Hogescholen. There’s a very easy way to reduce the number of foreign students, just raise the tuition and things will self-select. Compared to USA tuition is a steal even it doubles.
Wont work for eu students, which are majority of international student. The main reason is eu fees is set by the government which in turn is set by eu rules (not 100% sure).
People don’t understand that because they are uninformed by the news. Internationals comprises EU and non-eu but reality is that they are very different