The internationalization strategy of the universities of the Netherlands is dying of success.
The inability of public administrations and the educational institutions themselves to manage the consequences of the enormous flow of international students arriving in the country, attracted by the promise of quality education in the English language, has led the Government to propose changes for the 2024-2025 school year which will mean that you will need to speak Dutch to enroll in the centres.
Accommodation problems, the lack of teachers, the reduction of opportunities for national students and the drop in educational standards are some of the factors behind the plan put forward by the Minister of Education, Robbert Dijkgraaf, in parliament and which should be approved in September. However, the initiative has not been well received by the educational community.
Currently, around 122,200 students enrolled in universities in the Netherlands, 15% of the total, come from abroad, most of them from European Union countries. The figure triples the data of 2005 and illustrates the success of the internationalization strategy of its universities, which received an unexpected boost with Brexit. This year, in the first courses, the percentage rises to 40% of the total (42,000).
Access to housing has become one of the most urgent problems for the Dutch, a situation that also affects young people – foreigners or nationals – who pay to study in the country and at the last minute find themselves without a place in university residences and without the possibility of paying the high prices of rooms in the private market. Faced with the lack of places in the residences, this summer the University of Amsterdam asked students not to travel to the city, unless they had accommodation secured.
At the same time, the high cost of student life in the Netherlands has led many young Dutch people to enroll in Dutch-speaking universities in neighboring Belgium. There is one more problem that is more uncomfortable to talk about: EU students have as much right as Dutch students to receive scholarships and some parties question whether it is the best use of public resources.
Faced with this cluster of problems, at the end of last year, Mark Rutte’s Government, a coalition of liberal and conservative parties, asked universities to stop accepting foreign students. It was a recommendation, legislative changes are now being considered to meet the objective, and fixing the language in which the courses must be taught is the formula chosen to achieve this. “Right now the law says that, by default, the language of instruction is Dutch, but there are many loopholes and everyone takes advantage of them,” argues the minister.
Currently, nearly 50% of degrees are taught in English, as are 75% of master’s degrees. What the Government proposes is to limit to 30% the amount of credits that can be obtained in a foreign language per course, a formula with which it is hoped to favor national students and, at the same time, encourage those from outside to learn the language thus staying in the country when they finish their training, something that currently does not happen.
Eindhoven University of Technology, which teaches all degrees and master’s degrees in English, warns that it is already having trouble finding Dutch-speaking teachers in certain specialties and believes that the reform will lower the quality of teaching and the attraction of talent
The University of Groningen, for its part, says it sees the challenges posed by the internationalization of classrooms, but declares itself “deeply disturbed” by the effects of the measure. “Sharing knowledge beyond our borders and betting on international classrooms has contributed to the fact that our university is today a leading institution with deep roots in Groningen”, argues the center in a statement in which it warns that the Government’s initiative would represent a historical interference in their educational autonomy.
