This academic year there are over 112,000 international students in the Netherlands of 164 different nationalities, according to internationalization organization Nuffic. While more than 30,000 follow a courses or are serving internships, 81,000 have come here for a whole study program.

More than half of them (48,000) study at a university. So 18% of all students in university education are from abroad. Ten years ago that was only 8%. It is particularly Master’s programs that show impetuous growth.

Among ‘hogescholen’ there has been stagnation for several years now. The number of international Higher Professional Education students fluctuates around 33,000. Ten years ago 6.6% of all Higher Professional Education students came from abroad, whereas now that is 7.5%.

Ever more international students hail from outside Europe, as Nuffic has noticed, especially from countries like India, Indonesia and South Korea. Nevertheless, Germans still account for the largest group (over 22,000 students), followed by China (4,300 students). Surprisingly enough, there are more Italians than Belgians coming over here meanwhile. At TU/e there are especially large numbers of Chinese and Indian students.

For many years now, Maastricht University has been the most international university in the Netherlands, with more than half of all its students coming from abroad. That percentage is bound only to increase over the coming years, for the percentage of Dutch students among first-year students is only 35.5.

On October 1, 2016, TU/e had 1,408 international students and at present there are 223 exchange students. The universities of Groningen and Rotterdam have more than five thousand international students. Fontys Hogescholen has 4,800 – just a few more than Delft University of Technology and the University of Amsterdam.

The most internationally-oriented studies are the university colleges of the universities (38.7%) and the art course programs in Higher Professional Education (31.8%).

                                                                          Brain gain

For the Dutch treasury the increasing internationalization of higher education is only favorable, Nuffic reported as early as in November. About 25% of the international students continue to live and work in the Netherlands throughout their lives. This brings in a brain gain of more than 1.5 billion euros for our knowledge economy.