Over the past ten years, almost 76,000 students used their Dutch student loan to undertake an entire study programme abroad. They opted for 1,300 universities and universities of applied science in 86 countries.
Ten years ago, students were allowed for the first time to take their Dutch student loan with them. Tens of thousands of students are now doing this every year. Internationalisation organisation, Nuffic, has made an inventory of where they all go.
Belgium
Most students choose Belgium: in 2015, exactly 5,586 students studied there, undertaking study programmes such as veterinary studies, medicine and psychology.
Great Britain is also popular, with 1,668 students choosing to study there. Around five hundred students departed for the United States and another five hundred went to Germany. After that, there are a range of other countries: Sweden, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, France and Denmark, which have over a hundred Dutch students.
Some two percent of all Dutch students choose a study programme abroad. If Nuffic has confidence in the level of the study programme, the students can simply take their student loan with them. These globetrotters must have lived legally in the Netherlands for three of the past six years and are not allowed to obtain a student loan from another country.
