Universities welcoming fewer and fewer students

The intake of first-year wo bachelor’s students has declined again. Both international and Dutch students are staying away. Only in Leiden and Delft have numbers increased.

Around 56 thousand bachelor’s students started at a Dutch university in 2025. That is 3.4 per cent fewer than last year. For the fifth year in a row, the number of first-year students has fallen. Both the Dutch intake (3.3 per cent fewer) and the international intake (3.6 per cent fewer) declined.

Dutch students

Only the bachelor’s programmes in ‘law’ saw an increase in the number of Dutch first-year students. In the ‘behaviour & society’ sector, numbers remained the same. In all other sectors, however, numbers fell.

According to the universities association UNL, this is because fewer vwo pupils started a degree; there were fewer vwo pupils sitting their final exams and they also passed less often. Moreover, they increasingly appear to be taking a gap year.

International students

The international intake also declined, by 3.6 per cent. In particular, students from other European countries (EEA countries) are increasingly less likely to choose a bachelor’s in the Netherlands.

The now demissionary Schoof cabinet wanted to cut spending on these students. A new law was intended to reduce the number of internationals. Among other things, there would be a ‘language test’ for English-taught programmes. But the new coalition has pulled the plug on this plan.

Remarkably, the shortage sectors engineering and health are attracting more internationals, especially engineering. Almost one in five international students who started a bachelor’s in the Netherlands in 2025 chose an engineering programme.

Technical universities

Delft, Eindhoven and Wageningen were the only universities to attract more international students in 2025 than in 2024. In Wageningen, this concerned one student. However, the universities of Eindhoven and Wageningen attracted fewer domestic students, meaning their overall intake still declined.

Despite fewer international students coming to Leiden, the university still saw more first-year students starting: the number of new Dutch bachelor’s students rose by almost six per cent.

The University of Amsterdam remains the largest university in the Netherlands, but welcomed more than six hundred fewer first-year students this year than in 2024. The Vrije Universiteit also had around five hundred fewer.

In Rotterdam, too, the number of new first-year students starting a degree this academic year fell. There were 5,810 new first-year students in September, compared with 5,930 in the previous academic year.

Decline

In total, 332 thousand bachelor’s and master’s students are enrolled at a Dutch university, including around 91 thousand international students. Last year, the total stood at 338 thousand.

UNL is concerned about the decline. “Without a welcoming talent strategy, we undermine our science, (societal) innovation and our economy”, says chair Caspar van den Berg.

Top talent

The coalition parties have indeed included such a talent strategy in their new agreement. “Universities and universities of applied sciences will receive targeted additional opportunities to attract international top talent and retain domestic talent”, D66, CDA and VVD write.

At the same time, the coalition parties consider it important to ‘maintain control’ over the arrival of international students and want to make ‘binding administrative agreements’ on this with education institutions.