The coverage bulletins got here on January 30 and have been welcomed with cautious optimism by the sector after earlier administrations moved to limit worldwide scholar flows and minimize funding for training and science.
UNL, the main affiliation of Dutch analysis universities, stated the coalition’s plans have been “promising”, hailing its recognition of the significance of investing in training and sustaining the Netherlands’ worldwide outlook.
“We hope this will likely be a turning level,” UNL spokesperson Ruben Puylaert informed The PIE, although he stated the injury brought on by the earlier authorities’s finances cuts “can not merely be undone inside a yr”.
He emphasised the necessity for steady and predictable analysis funding, including it was “essential to remain the course and proceed shifting in direction of the three% R&D goal”.
The change of tack from the federal government will see €1.5bn invested in training and science, reversing cuts of roughly €1.2bn beneath Geert Wilders’ far-right get together, which prompted widespread protests amongst college students and school.
Wilders’ authorities additionally sought to limit the variety of worldwide college students within the Netherlands by lowering the variety of English-taught packages and selling Dutch because the language of instruction.
Alongside different restrictions, such measures noticed worldwide enrolments at Dutch universities fall for 3 consecutive years, with 2024/25 seeing a decline of 5%, in keeping with Studyportals, as forecasters warned of a projected €5bn hit to the financial system.
For Studyportals CEO Edwin van Relaxation, the change in course acts as an essential sign for different examine locations, “displaying that populist and anti-immigration narratives (no less than for high-skilled expertise) will be overcome”.
He highlighted a world capability imbalance with an extra of instructional and job alternatives within the developed world, and younger folks being born in different areas, including that worldwide training was the best hyperlink to resolve this – “stronger than the ebbs and flows of politics”.
Worldwide training … is stronger than the ebbs and flows of politics
Edwin van Relaxation, Studyportals
Below the brand new coalition – led by the liberal D66 get together alongside the centre-right Christian Democratic Attraction (CDA) and the liberal Individuals’s Social gathering for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) – a brand new expertise technique will likely be carried out to ensure the continued attraction and retainment of worldwide expertise.
What’s extra, the obligatory International Language Training Check will likely be abolished and present foreign-language diploma packages maintained, which means psychology, economics and enterprise programs should now not be transformed into Dutch.
Whereas opposing earlier governments’ heavy-handed restrictions, many Dutch universities carried out self-regulatory measures lately to preserve sustainable worldwide scholar ranges.
“Universities proceed to take accountability for balanced internationalisation, with a focused consumption method and ongoing concentrate on language expertise and scholar retention price,” stated UNL president Caspar van de Berg in a statement.
“In that mild, we’re glad that the necessity to change the language of instruction ceases to use beneath this coalition settlement,” he added.
In line with UNL, the funding in training and the reprioritisation of worldwide college students mark essential steps for the Netherlands to stay an revolutionary information financial system and for its strategic autonomy.
“The Netherlands, like virtually all developed economies, has a demographic drawback and lots of shortages in high-skilled expertise,” stated van Relaxation: “Worldwide college students are nice contributors to our society and delicate energy all over the world, but in addition have an enormous contribution to our competitiveness.”
As per Studyportals knowledge, just below 50% of worldwide graduates keep to work within the Netherlands, with the nation providing the third most English-taught packages in Europe.
What’s extra, the federal government’s change of tack comes at a time of shifting worldwide scholar flows, with curiosity in European examine up by 17.5% within the final 5 years, in comparison with demand for conventional locations which has fallen by 25%, in keeping with Studyportals.
Amid visa restrictions and coverage uncertainty throughout the ‘large 4’ international locations, 68% of worldwide universities in a recent survey stated authorities insurance policies damage worldwide recruitment in 2025, up from 51% in 2024. Within the US, that quantity jumped to 85%.
