The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) bases its prognosis on figures from Studielink, the national website on which students can manage their enrolments and re-enrolment. On 30 April, 89,084 future students had enrolled for a university bachelor. On 1 May 2017 there were 81,202 provisional enrolments. No figures are available yet for enrolments for master programmes.
Cleaned up
Previous polls revealed an even bigger difference. In March of this year, the number of enrolments was as much as 16 percent higher than this time last year. According to a VSNU spokesperson, this is now smaller because the list of provisional enrolments was cleaned up in April. “For example, anyone who had enrolled for a numerus fixus programme but who had not enrolled for the matching was removed from the list,” says the spokesperson.
He emphasised that the figures are only an indication and that the actual number of enrolments will be lower. Not all students who have enrolled will actually start the programme in September. They may fail their final school exams or choose a programme abroad at the last minute, for example.
Difficult to compare
Furthermore, it is difficult to compare the current figures with those of last year, because the enrolment process has changed. From this academic year, for example, international students are required to enrol via Studielink. “Enrolment has now become more complete,” says a spokesperson. “We will now be able to compare next year’s figures with this year’s. But that’s not as useful this year.”
For now, the VSNU is only publishing the total number of enrolments, without dividing them per university or programme. Nor does the association want to comment on the number of enrolments from abroad. “We see it as a weekly poll that mainly says something about the popularity of our universities,” according to the spokesperson.
