The Netherlands, also known as Holland, may be limiting international students seeking to study in the country known for its tulips and canals. The Dutch government plans to decrease the number of incoming international students by 2026.

The Netherlands government plans to reduce the number of English-language bachelor’s courses in its universities to decrease the number of international students. Currently, 70% of Bachelor’s programs are taught in Dutch, and 18% of those degree programs also have an English version. The total percentage of English-language Bachelor’s programs is 30%.

In a letter sent to the House of Representatives today, education, culture and science minister Eppo Bruins wrote that he wants to restore Dutch as the standard language of instruction in higher education. The measures are intended to safeguard the accessibility of higher education, improve proficiency in Dutch and retain international talent for the Dutch labour market.

Bruins will proceed with the Internationalisation in Balance bill (WIB) and tighten the relevant secondary legislation.

The bill lays down that Dutch-taught modules or components must be available for at least two-thirds of the curriculum of Dutch bachelor’s degree courses. No more than one-third may be taught in a language other than Dutch. This leaves scope for guest lectures by international academics and scientists, for example.

A bachelor’s degree course can only be taught entirely in another language after approval from a special commission and the education minister, following a mandatory assessment.

The universities will also start offering more Dutch-taught degree programs. They agree that all major Bachelor’s programs will at least be taught in Dutch. Moreover, the universities are currently identifying which English-taught degree programs can be fully converted to Dutch.

Back in February, the Dutch universities had agreed that no new English-taught Bachelor’s programs will be developed for now. This measure will be evaluated within two years, and will end the moment the new legal Foreign Language Education Test (Toets Anderstalig Onderwijs, TAO) enters into force.

There will be four possible grounds for exemption:

Educational institutions in border regions or regions with shrinking populations,

Training for jobs in sectors with labour market shortages (e.g. specific courses in engineering and sciences),

Courses that are offered at one location only, and

Inherently international programmes.

In comparison with the previous government’s policy, the minister wants to define the last two grounds in order to prevent exceptions from becoming the rule and ensure that Dutch is the main language in higher education.

The stay rate for the total group of international graduates five years after graduation is around 25%. But the stay rate of students who come from the European Economic Area (EEA), and who pay the same tuition fee as Dutch students, is only 19%. Research by Nuffic (the Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education) found that language proficiency requirements are a major barrier to finding work and participating in Dutch society.

For most programmes international students first need to register via the Studielink tool which is the official registration and application portal for programmes at most Dutch higher education institutions.

Over the last decade, the number of overseas students in the Netherlands has grown significantly. According to preliminary enrollment data for 2023-2024, international students account for more than 25% of all incoming students in higher education. Approximately 45% of these students come to the Netherlands to pursue a bachelor’s degree in academic higher education.