Before the pandemic hit, about a quarter of students in bachelor’s or master’s programmes would spend a few months abroad to take courses at another institution. They were considered ‘credit-mobile’, as it was called.
Lockdowns
The lockdowns during the global pandemic made such trips more difficult and less appealing. In the 2021/2022 academic year, only 11 percent of all university of applied sciences and research university graduates had taken courses abroad at some point during their studies – likely before the crisis began.
That percentage has now climbed to 17 percent of all new graduates from bachelor’s and master’s programmes in higher education, according to CBS. That means one in six students.
Research university students are more likely to go abroad during their bachelor’s (22 percent) than their master’s (14 percent). Among university of applied sciences bachelor’s students, 17 percent have spent time abroad, while this is rare in applied sciences master’s programmes and two-year associate degree programmes.
The most mobile group in higher education are international university of applied sciences students. They came to the Netherlands for a full bachelor’s programme and apparently retain their appetite for travel: 28 percent earn part of their credits in another country. Among the much larger group of Dutch applied sciences bachelor’s students, that figure is 16 percent.
For research university bachelor’s students, the gap is slightly smaller, but here too, internationals are just a bit more likely to take a course abroad than Dutch students: 25 compared to 21 percent. In (often one-year) research university master’s programmes, the numbers are close: 13 and 14 percent.
Full degree abroad
The figures do not include Dutch students who complete an entire degree abroad. This applies to nearly 2 percent. The most popular destination is Belgium, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.
