Having graduated, a quarter of the Dutch population of foreign students settles down to spend the rest of their lives here, estimates EP-Nuffic based on new figures. This is more than the 19 percent previously assumed.

As those who have studied higher education generally find a good job, their tax and social insurance contributions are considerable. This is the source of the Treasury profit.

And that is not all, according to EP-Nuffic. The foreigners who do leave are thought to contribute positively to the Netherlands' reputation and trade relations. This gain, however, is hard to quantify.

Attracting even more foreign students from abroad is not in itself an aim, believes Freddy Weima, director of EP-Nuffic. “We want good international students, because they contribute to the economy and the education system.”

Until 2012 some political parties were concerned about the presence of foreign students in Dutch higher education. Why should we pay for their education, they wondered. The then State Secretary for Education, VVD party member Halbe Zijlstra, was keen to talk to neighboring countries about compensation.

But then the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) calculated that, on the contrary, the country benefits financially from its tertiary educated foreigners. Indeed, the number of students staying need not be that large for the situation to be profitable. This signaled a change in the attitude towards the growing presence of international students in Dutch higher education.

Now it is evident that foreign students are even more lucrative: over time the state earns 1.57 billion from them. In the recent years of economic crisis, the number of foreign students returning abroad increased slightly, observes EP-Nuffic, but five years later it was clear that 36 percent were still here. Expectations are that ultimately 25 percent will remain in the Netherlands.

“We had anecdotal evidence of this,” says Weima, “but we recently acquired the figures to demonstrate it. Internationalization is much debated in political circles. That makes it important to show its true value, in monetary terms.”

Aside from all the economic benefits, it is believed that international students also improve the quality of education. They graduate faster than average and with an above-average final grade, reports EP-Nuffic.