international students

While Dutch universities continue to spend huge amounts of public funds on recruiting international students, any attempts by the government to curb their numbers will be futile, Wittenborg CEO Maggie Feng warned in an interview published in the November issue of Onderwijsblad, a publication of the AOb - the Netherlands’ biggest teachers' union.

The number of VWO students in the Netherlands starting a Dutch university study remains more or less the same, while the influx of international students continues to grow. This year 20 percent of university students come from abroad.

A survey among international students and alumni at Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences has indicated that they deem the current orientation year for graduates to look for a job in the Netherlands insufficient. More than 70% favour a 2-year post-graduation work visa instead.

Students from Wittenborg Amsterdam showed off their debating skills against a group of American students who are on a short-term, study-abroad programme at the University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universiteit.

The Netherlands has maintained its position as one of the top study destinations in the world in the 2020 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Together with Australia, it has the 4th highest number of universities in the Top 200.

Fewer scholarships and higher fees are what non-EU students planning to study at public universities in the Netherlands face, should new cabinet proposals to deal with the influx of international students come into force. Whether this will also apply to private institutions like Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences, that are not publicly funded, is unclear.

Contrary to the idea that international students are a huge financial burden to the Netherlands, new figures from the Dutch Central Planning Bureau (CPB) has shown the opposite - in actual fact they add thousands of euros to the economy each year.

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.