More internationals, less from UK

More internationals, less from UK

Dutch higher education continues to welcome more and more international students. Meanwhile, however, the number of new enrolments from the UK fell by a quarter this academic year. The Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education Nuffic has created a detailed overview of new international student enrolments this academic year based on figures from the Education Executive Agency (DUO).

Overall, the number of international students increased by 12 percent this academic year, with some 115,000 new international students enrolling in a full degree programme at a Dutch higher education institution. The majority (72 percent) are from Europe. As in previous years, the largest group of foreign students comes from Germany, while the second spot on the list is occupied by Italy again. New to the top 3 this year is Romania, in third place, followed by China and Belgium.

Enrolment numbers from the UK have shown a significant decline in the past two years. The number of new registrations fell 24.3 percent this academic year, the largest drop in the top 100 countries of origin. This is most likely due to Brexit, which was finalised in 2020. This is the first full academic year in which UK nationals are no longer part of the EEA (European Economic Area), requiring them to pay institutional tuition fees. These are often thousands of euros higher than the ‘regular’ tuition fees for European students. (HOP, JvE | Translation: Taalcentrum-VU) 

^{Source: Nuffic}