Trying to cap the international student numbers
Both universities and colleges in the Netherlands have called for the opportunity to be able to reduce the number of international students. This was discussed in our last article published last week, where universities joined and expressed their need to reduce international student numbers. This is because within 10 years, the number of international students has more than doubled, and they want to tackle the issues that comes with that. Well this was presented to the government minister yesterday (Monday) in a paper, that outlines what they propose to do. One of those being capping English courses.
Time to study frantically elsewhere?
So, what do they want to do?
One reduction method is taking measures such as capping the amount of courses taught in English. This means that Dutch would still dominate the curriculum. Why is this important? Well, this isn’t the first time there have been complaints of this sort. The sharp rise of English-taught courses meant that it encouraged more international students, meaning that competition was fierce. They felt that this was not fair on Dutch students.
Another issue was because there was so many English-taught courses, that the standard of English was in fact slipping. It actually got to the point where students could not understand what the teacher was saying. As a result, they have also called to ensure that there is sufficient Dutch courses and that teachers have a C1 language level or higher.
Higher tuition fees?
They have also suggested that non-EU international students should pay more for a course that doesn’t have many places. This will not change for EU students as there is an agreement that they should pay the standard fee (same as Dutch students). So non-EU students could be paying even more for a course.
The usual issues, such as housing (which we have moaned about a few times) and competition has meant that the universities feel that they have no choice but to try and reduce the numbers. This is mainly because the budget has been cut every year, yet student numbers continuously rise. They also want to encourage Dutch students to study elsewhere (which can be easy considering the standard of English skills here).
What do you think about this? Let us know in the comments! And don’t forget to join our DutchReview Facebook group while you’re at it. 😉
