Growth in number of international students in the Netherlands declines, but TU’s see increase

The number of international students in Dutch higher education is growing by just 3 percent this year. That is the smallest increase in a decade, according to the internationalisation organisation Nuffic. Contrary to this national trend, technical universities are seeing strong growth.

At the start of the 2024–25 academic year, a total of 131,000 international students were enrolled in the Netherlands for a full bachelor’s or master’s degree. That’s an increase of 3,835 compared to the 2023–2024 academic year, according to the report.

The growth in the number of international students has been slowing for some time: three years ago it stood at 12 percent, two years ago at 7 percent, and last academic year at 5.4 percent.

Fewer new bachelor’s students

The number of international students enrolling for the first time in a Dutch bachelor’s or master’s programme is also stagnating. This academic year, 51,800 students enrolled across all higher education institutions, representing a growth of just 0.4 percent—the smallest increase since 2006.

At TU Delft, the number of international master’s students increased by 21.4 percent

This is mainly due to a decline in new bachelor’s enrolments. At universities and universities of applied sciences, these fell by 5 and 7 percent respectively. This loss was just offset by an increase in academic master’s enrolments, which rose by 10 percent (to 19,960 students), and by 9 percent (to 2,365 students) in professional master’s programmes.

Nuffic anticipates that the declining intake at the bachelor’s level will, in a few years, lead to a decline in master’s enrolments, resulting in an overall reduction in the international student population.

Differences across institutions

Growth rates vary significantly between institutions. The technical universities in Eindhoven (24 percent) and Delft (21 percent), for instance, welcomed considerably more new international bachelor’s and master’s students this academic year. At TU Delft, the number of international bachelor’s students increased by 20 percent and international master’s students by 21.4 percent. (HOP, NB)