40 percent international first-year students at Dutch universities

Over the past 16 years, the number of international students has grown more rapidly than the number of domestic students. In the 2021/’22 academic year, 115 thousand international students were enrolled in higher education. This is 3.5 times as many as in 2005/’06, when the number stood at 33 thousand. The group of international students in 2021/’22 comprised 80.4 thousand university students and 34.8 thousand HBO students; in 2005/’06, there were 12.5 thousand international university students and 20.6 thousand international HBO students. Since 2017/’18, international students at universities are more likely to be enrolled in a Bachelor’s than in a Master’s degree programme. Before this time, they were relatively more likely to register with a Dutch university for a Master’s degree.

Quarter of first-year students come from abroad

The number of international first-year students is rising steadily. In 2021/’22, around one quarter of the first-year students in higher education were international. The share of international first-year students at universities was even nearly 40 percent. The upward trend continued in 2020/’21 as well, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. In that academic year, education was mainly provided online, which may explain why there was no decline in the number of international students, despite travel restrictions in many countries.

The academic year 2020/’21 saw a rise in domestic first-year students. There was a high attainment rate in secondary education and less opportunity for a gap year abroad on account of the pandemic. In the 2021/’22 academic year, the number of Dutch first-year students had more or less returned to the pre-pandemic level.

Majority of international students from Europe

Especially the total number of international students from Europe has surged in recent years. In the 2005/’06 academic year, 63 percent of all international students came from Europe, against 76 percent in 2021/’22. A fifth of all international students were from Germany (24.5 thousand). The share of German students has declined over the past few years. For example, in 2009/’10 still nearly half of the international students were German nationals. The share of students coming from other European countries has risen. In 2021/’22, 19.6 thousand students came from Asia, many of them from China (over 5 thousand) and India (over 3 thousand).

International university students often enrolled in social and behavioural sciences

Among Dutch students, courses in law, administration, trade and business services are most popular in 2021/’22, both in higher vocational and university education. International HBO students are also most likely to be enrolled in these courses this academic year. In addition, courses in design, art and languages were popular among international students. International university students were most likely to follow studies in journalism and in behavioural and social sciences.