“Less is more” view on student numbers at Dutch universities
The increase in enrolments in higher education is a sign of young bright students eager to learn. The universities are not just centres of learning but they also create new ways of engagement with local communities and enrich society.
The universities in the Netherlands expressed concerns over the record-high enrolments for the 2021-2022 academic year with 340,346 students enrolled at Dutch universities.
The final enrolment figures of the Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) demonstrate that this is almost 13,000 (4%) higher than the previous record set in 2020-2021. The burden on institutions will continue to rise as the number of students grows. For decades, government spending per student has been declining, but personnel workload has increased.
The above number shows the overall increase of students of 4%, an increase of international students of 14.2% and students from higher professional education enrolling in a university Master’s programme of 7.7%.
The number of international students is almost 80,000, for both the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes.
The growth of overseas students can be attributed to several factors, including the outstanding quality of Dutch universities, very affordable fees, and an increasing number of English-language courses.
Pieter Duisenberg, president of Universities of the Netherlands said:
“International talent is essential, both for the quality of education and research at universities and for the Dutch labour market. However, for some of the degree programmes, the number of international students is growing too fast to keep the quality of education high and the workload manageable. Universities are therefore in urgent need of additional instruments that will allow them to continue responding to international student numbers.”
The association made three proposals to the Dutch House of Representatives, which were as follows:
• A maximum number of students from outside the European Economic Area per degree programme.
• An emergency quota to prevent overcrowding during the enrolment process.
• English language track degree programmes have an enrolment quota.
According to Duisenberg, it is difficult to say if cutting numbers for English-language courses would result in more international students learning Dutch.
Whatever the outcome will be out of the proposal, it will take time to implement and it will be a difficult decision.
