Bruins defends recruiting international engineering students

As engineering courses become more popular among Dutch students, this could impact the availability of workers in healthcare and education, acknowledges Minister of Education Eppo Bruins. This is one reason why engineering programmes continue to recruit students from abroad. Unlike some other politicians, Bruins believes this is justified.

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Earlier this spring, chip manufacturer ASML threatened to leave the Netherlands. This was partly due to restrictions on the number of international students and skilled migrants, which parties like PVV and NSC have been advocating for. ASML feared it would soon be unable to find enough employees.

In response, the previous cabinet quickly decided to allocate €450 million, with an additional €80 million per year from 2031. This funding is intended, among other things, to attract more students to engineering. The plan was given the codename ‘Beethoven’.

The ruling party NSC raised written questions about this. The party remains sceptical about the influx of international students and skilled migrants to the Netherlands.

38,000 extra technicians

The microchip sector alone is expected to need around 38,000 additional technicians, particularly in the Eindhoven area. This demand spans all levels of education: from vocational training (mbo) to higher professional education (hbo) and academic degrees. One of the Beethoven plans is to ensure that technically trained internationals continue to work in the Netherlands. Additionally, efforts will be made to encourage more women to pursue careers in engineering.

NSC wants to know how this government funding will result in additional technicians. Minister Bruins does not yet have a concrete answer, but suggests that companies and educational institutions could, for example, develop programmes to connect international students with jobs in the microchip sector. They could also use the funds to adjust their recruitment campaigns to address gender bias.

Healthcare and education

There are other fields of study that also need more students, NSC notes, such as nursing and teacher training programmes. If engineering studies become more popular, won’t this come at the expense of healthcare and education?

The potential success of engineering studies could indeed be at the expense of healthcare and education, Bruins admits (he, incidentally, represents NSC in the cabinet). That is why, according to the minister, regions are working on ‘expanding the talent pool’. He mentions upskilling and reskilling of workers, as well as ‘specifically attracting international talent’.

Home country

Other countries also face a shortage of technicians, Bruins explains. One solution in these countries is to encourage their engineering students who have gone abroad to return to their ‘home country’. Although he doesn’t state it explicitly, this means that the Netherlands is not the only country competing for these international students.