{"id":164019,"date":"2024-02-08T16:33:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T15:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=164019"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:10","slug":"dutch-universities-take-matters-into-their-own-hands-to-control-international-intake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2024\/02\/08\/dutch-universities-take-matters-into-their-own-hands-to-control-international-intake\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch universities take matters into their own hands to control international intake"},"content":{"rendered":"

The universities will be creating a Dutch track for all major English-taught Bachelor\u2019s programmes. Some programmes are even switching back to Dutch altogether.<\/p>\n

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International students at Eureka Week's international day.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tElliot Zepeda<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Dutch universities understand that the internationalisation of higher education poses certain problems. Their message<\/a> today is that they want to solve these problems themselves. Self-direction is the magic word.<\/p>\n

Migration played a major role in last November\u2019s general elections. The two biggest winners, PVV and NSC, want to significantly curb the intake of foreign students at Dutch universities, for example by making almost all Bachelor\u2019s programmes Dutch-taught again.<\/p>\n

Handling it themselves<\/h2>

The universities want to show that they can handle this themselves. While they still point to the value international students add to the economy and the quality of education, they say they aren\u2019t blind to the bottlenecks: there\u2019s a housing shortage, Dutch language skills are declining and Dutch students sometimes have to compete with foreign students for a limited number of spots on programmes.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, figures show that the much-discussed growth in the number of international students has levelled off<\/a>. The number of international first-year students has remained roughly the same for three years in a row. According to the universities themselves, this is due to the fact that they are no longer actively recruiting abroad. They also warn prospective students that it might be difficult for them to find accommodation. Don\u2019t come here if you don\u2019t have a room, is the message in many cities.<\/p>\n\n\t

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