RuG currently has a little over 4,300 international students. Annually, the Language Center expects approximately one thousand to want to learn Dutch. “Many foreign students go back home after having graduated”, says Berna de Boer of the RuG Language Center that’s offering the course. They’re hoping international graduates feel more connected to the Netherlands when they speak the language, and might choose to stay here with all their knowledge. “And should they go home anyway, they’d still make great ambassadors of the Netherlands and the Dutch language.”

Vincent Merk, coordinator of Language and Intercultural Communication (CLIC) at TU/e, concurs. The Brainport region has been supporting the idea for years. “TU/e is one of the few universities that have been offering free Dutch classes to international students for quite some time now. It involves master students mostly. Every year, some 200 arrive in Eindhoven, and every ten weeks a group of fifty to sixty students starts on the beginner course.”

Foreign faculty is offered a different beginner course. After that, they’re grouped with the students for the follow-up course. The full course package includes four levels. Merk: “The master students can be divided into two groups. The first group, a minority, receives a scholarship that’s tied to a fixed-term employment contract with companies like Philips or ASML. After a while they’ll be returning home, so they can manage with just English. Still, the majority of foreign master students is not sure of a contract, so they can boost their career opportunities by learning Dutch as well.”