See more of Dutch Brief in your Google search results
International students are, on average, a net gain for the Dutch treasury, earning the country more than they cost over the course of their lives. That is the central conclusion of a new study by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB), the government’s independent economic forecaster, and it runs counter to a political debate that has increasingly framed foreign students as a burden.
What the study found
The CPB examined the costs and benefits of international students at the request of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Its finding is clear: over their whole life course, international students make an average positive contribution to Dutch public finances. The money the government spends on them, including student finance and spending on social security and healthcare, is, in the bureau’s words, “amply recouped” on average.
The reason is what happens after graduation. A significant share of international students stay in the Netherlands to live and work, and therefore pay tax. “The longer they work here, the more tax they pay,” said CPB researcher Paul Verstraten. Even where the upfront costs are high, they tend to be earned back in the years afterwards. The result is in line with the CPB’s own earlier analyses, which have repeatedly reached a similar conclusion.
More students are staying
A key part of the picture is that international graduates are putting down roots in the Netherlands more often than they used to. According to the CPB, five years after leaving higher education, roughly one in five students from the European Economic Area (EEA), and about two in five from outside it, still live in the country. A decade ago, both figures were around a quarter lower.
That distinction between EEA and non-EEA students matters. The EEA covers the EU member states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, and students from these countries have broadly the same rights as Dutch students, including on tuition fees and student finance, so the government pays a large part of their study costs. Students from outside the EEA pay much higher tuition and receive far less public support, which is why they have long tended to show up as a net financial gain even during their studies. For EEA students, the state spends more upfront, but recoups it later through the taxes paid by those who stay.
Around 17 percent of students in Dutch higher education came from abroad in the past academic year, the large majority of them from within the EEA.
SPONSORED
You’re overpaying your accountant. And they still don’t call you back.
Neno gives you a dedicated bookkeeper, automated admin, real-time financial insights and a free business bank account. Everything your business needs, in one place.
No chasing. No surprises. No unnecessary costs.
Why the finding is political
The study lands in the middle of a live and sensitive debate. For several years, the growing number of international students has been a source of political concern in the Netherlands, and the current government has been pursuing legislation, the “Internationalisation in Balance” bill, aimed at getting more control over the influx.
It is important to clarify what the CPB study covers and what it does not. It focuses specifically on the impact on government finances, and its findings are positive in that regard. But the concerns behind the political debate are not only, or even mainly, financial. Critics point to the pressure that large numbers of students place on an already severe housing shortage, to crowded lecture halls and rising workloads for teaching staff, and to the spread of English-taught degree programmes, which some fear squeezes out Dutch students or erodes Dutch-language education. Supporters counter that international students enrich campuses, help fill shortages in the labour market, and, as this study underlines, more than pay their way.