Parliament calls on Dutch universities to stop recruiting international students

The House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) wants Dutch universities to stop actively recruiting international students in order to limit the strain on housing and university infrastructure. 

Dutch universities can't keep up with rising student numbers

Figures published earlier this year by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) revealed that, in the 2021 / 2022 academic year, 40 percent of first-years enrolled at Dutch universities were international students. Since 2005 / 2006, the number of internationals studying in the Netherlands has almost quadrupled. 

As universities struggle to keep up with the rapidly rising numbers - lecture halls aren’t big enough to accommodate all the students, and the housing shortage means internationals are left without anywhere to live - members of parliament are calling on higher education institutions to stop actively recruiting students from abroad, in the hopes this will temper the influx of internationals. 

Parliament: Universities must stop actively recruiting internationals

The Minister for Education, Culture and Science, Robbert Dijkgraaf, has said he’ll present a plan to tackle the issue in February - but parliament says action is needed sooner. They would like to see Dutch universities no longer advertise to potential applicants abroad and stop attending university and career fairs outside of the Netherlands.

"There is simply too little capacity," Peter Kwint from the Socialist Party (SP) told NOS. "Those international students can't help it, but they have to sleep in tents for the first few months or pay a lot of rent.”