International Student Numbers in the Netherlands Fall for the First Time in 20 Years
The number of international students in Dutch higher education has fallen for the first time in 20 years, with the biggest drops among German and Chinese students, new Nuffic figures show.
The number of international students in Dutch higher education has fallen for the first time in 20 years, according to new figures published by Nuffic, the Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education. Although the year-on-year drop is small (133 students), researchers say it is likely to mark the start of a longer downward trend, after years in which international student numbers grew strongly.
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A turning point
In the current academic year, 129,764 students from abroad are enrolled in a full bachelor’s or master’s programme at a Dutch university (university or hogeschool, a university of applied sciences). That is 133 fewer than the year before. It is the first decline since 2006. In previous years, growth had still been substantial: about 12 percent three years ago, 7 percent two years ago, 5.4 percent last year, and most recently 3 percent.
“That bachelor’s inflow is falling further makes it plausible that the international student population will continue to decline in the coming years, also at master’s level,” Nuffic researcher Jonatan Weenink said.
Germany and China drive the drop
Two big source countries account for most of the decline. The number of German students in the Netherlands fell by 1,680 this year, the fifth consecutive year of decline since their peak of 24,555 in 2021. Germany is still the largest country of origin, but the drop is steady. Even more striking is the fall in Chinese student numbers: down 988 students this year, or 28 percent, the steepest drop since 2006. Nuffic links the Chinese decline to better international rankings for Chinese universities, which keep more students at home, and to demographic decline in China.
The European Economic Area (the 27 EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) still supplies almost three-quarters of all international students. Within that group, the picture is uneven: fewer Germans, but more from Southern and Eastern Europe, including a 28 percent rise in new applications from Spain. Outside the EEA, Turkey and India remain the next two biggest source countries after China.
Technical universities still growing
The headline decline conceals sharp differences between institutions. The number of international students in technical studies actually rose by 11 percent, with TU Eindhoven leading the way at a 13 percent growth (1,106 extra students). At the TU Delft, the number of new international bachelor and master students grew 24 percent. Engineering has now become the second-most popular field for international students in Dutch higher education, after economics. By contrast, universities such as the University of Groningen and the University of Utrecht (down 9.3 percent earlier in the figures) are losing ground.
The number of Dutch students in higher education actually fell slightly faster, with the result that the share of international students rose marginally to 16.8 percent of the total.
A political push to reduce numbers
The decline coincides with several years of political effort to reduce international student inflows. The Wet Internationalisering in Balans (WIB), a law years in preparation, aims to give the government more grip on the number of international students, restrict English-language bachelor programmes and protect Dutch as a teaching and research language. Successive education ministers, Robbert Dijkgraaf, Eppo Bruins and most recently Marieke Moes, have each adapted the proposal. In 2025, a parliamentary majority voted to drop a controversial “test for foreign-language education” (TAO) for existing programmes in favour of a binding agreement with the universities. The revised bill went to the Council of State for advice earlier this year.
Universities themselves have already started moving. Universiteiten van Nederland (UNL), the umbrella body of research universities, has said its members will cut their fully English-language bachelor programmes by about a third. In the Randstad, all psychology bachelor programmes are returning to Dutch. Econometrics in Tilburg is doing the same. Combined, the universities expect about 2,000 fewer international bachelor students than in the peak year 2022/2023, leaving around 16,766 international first-year wo-bachelor students.
A wider shrinkage
The international decline sits inside a wider shrinkage in Dutch higher education. The Dutch ministry of education expects the total number of students to fall by almost 10 percent over the next decade, for both Dutch and international students, with research universities now the fastest-shrinking part of the system. UNL chair Caspar van den Berg called the trend “no longer a future scenario but reality,” and said that “without an inviting talent strategy we are undermining our science, social innovation and our economy.” The Jetten coalition agreement explicitly includes a talent strategy as a priority.
For now, the practical message is that a long Dutch growth story is turning. After two decades in which international students became a fixture of campuses from Maastricht to Groningen, the country is entering a period in which their numbers, slowly but increasingly visibly, will be smaller.