international students

The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) has warned international students against a new scam whereby they are called and either asked to provide private information like bank details, or threatened outright into transferring money. Even Wittenborg CEO, Maggie Feng, who is of Chinese origin, was targeted recently.

The Dutch government is taking some serious steps to curb the number of international students coming to the country, which includes raising the minimum tuition fee for students from outside the European Economic Area and compelling them to take Dutch lessons, ScienceGuide reported this week.

The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) has asked prospective international students to direct questions about their intended stay in the Netherlands to the institution they intend to apply to – whether a research university or a university of applied sciences like Wittenborg.

Representatives from Nuffic Neso Mexico, China, North Korea and Vietnam visited several institutions in the Netherlands, including Wittenborg, to learn what they offer international students, whilst providing valuable insights on student mobility in their own countries.

Dutch universities have been consistently successful in drawing huge numbers of international students. Now they want to focus more on attracting quality students from abroad, rather than sheer quantity.

The Minister of Higher Education, Ingrid van Engelshoven, has said she is not averse to asking the Dutch Inspectorate of Education to look into the way agencies recruit international students for public universities if there are indications of irregular conduct.

For those of you who don’t know, I am Canadian, born and raised in both Montreal and Toronto. I visited the Netherlands twice before moving here last August. When I first got here, the Dutch would mention many stereotypes regarding Canadians. That in mind, we are associated with so many stereotypes of which most are untrue. However, the most interesting thing said about Canada is the one involving our monetary bills; they are 100% water proof and if you scratch the shiny silver part like a lotto ticket, it will smell like maple syrup.

Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences has called on the Dutch Ministry of Education to evaluate the way agencies recruit international students for transition-year programmes, which eventually win them a place at Dutch universities, questioning whether that place is legitimately earned.

The share of international students in the Netherlands has risen from 10.5% to 11.5% the past year with Italy overtaking China as the 2nd biggest country of origin after Germany.

The Dutch are considering a travel card for international students to give them a discount on public transport after a successful trial in 2018 involving five universities and four universities of applied sciences. About 3,000 of these special OV-chipcards were issued. Another test run across the country will be done in the next academic year.