It has become easier for international students to get a residence permit in the Netherlands for studying. However, once they are here, they are hardly ever checked upon, an evaluation shows.

The time it takes for the application procedure to complete is now half of what it was three years ago because the immigration service relaxed its admission criteria. In return, universities promised to report to the immigration service their international drop outs, because some students use their studies in Holland as a means to enter the Western world. Yet only a third of the institutions reported their drop outs last year. Two hundred students from eight universities have disappeared.  HOP