- Education , Student
- 01/02/2018
A record number of 52,573 new Bachelor's students started their programs in September. Economic Bachelor's programs saw particularly strong growth (16 percent), but behavior and society (14.3 percent) and engineering (11.6 percent) were also on the rise.
The Netherlands is an increasingly popular destination for foreign students. Last year the Bachelor's programs attracted some 8,700 ‘international’ students. This year the figure is 10,600. An increase of 22 percent. “The international position of the Dutch universities is very good,” concludes universities association VSNU.
The Master's programs too (total growth: 3.7 percent) drew more internationals: an additional 7 percent. The current situation is that 17.5 percent of all university students come from abroad.
But the largest group of first-years remains Dutch students who have completed their pre-university high school education. In September they numbered no fewer than 31 thousand, the highest number since 2013. This represents 4.9 percent growth on the previous year.
Record
In total (first-years plus subsequent years) on the census date of October 1st the number of students enrolled at Dutch universities was 276,713. This is the highest number ever. Moreover, it exceeds the number the Ministry of Education was using to make prediction.
This year the University of Amsterdam attracted the most first-years: 6,007. A small increase on last year's winner, the University of Groningen. Tilburg University has the highest rate of growth: 19 percent.
Archive photo main photo: Bart van Overbeeke
First-year Bachelor's
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
|
University of Amsterdam | 4 529 | 5 316 | 4 940 | 4 377 | 5 196 | 6 007 | 15.6% |
University of Groningen | 5 015 | 5 382 | 5 284 | 5 061 | 5 453 | 5 992 | 9.9% |
Erasmus University Rotterdam | 3 628 | 4 311 | 4 338 | 4 381 | 4 773 | 5 355 | 12.2% |
Utrecht University | 5 610 | 5 225 | 4 997 | 4 929 | 5 095 | 5 352 | 5.0% |
Leiden University | 3 845 | 4 508 | 4 166 | 4 267 | 4 451 | 4 998 | 12.3% |
Radboud University Nijmegen | 3 179 | 3 707 | 3 418 | 3 126 | 3 524 | 4 101 | 16.4% |
VU Amsterdam | 3 827 | 3 794 | 3 793 | 3 322 | 3 397 | 3 931 | 15.7% |
Tilburg University | 2 458 | 2 301 | 2 188 | 2 762 | 3 067 | 3 654 | 19.1% |
Maastricht University | 3 192 | 3 137 | 3 184 | 3 444 | 3 432 | 3 652 | 6.4% |
Delft University of Technology | 2 610 | 2 871 | 2 924 | 3 082 | 3 183 | 3 446 | 8.3% |
Eindhoven University of Technology | 1 636 | 1 823 | 1 986 | 2 146 | 2 247 | 2 497 | 11.1% |
University of Twente | 1 697 | 1 714 | 1 719 | 1 598 | 1 962 | 2 002 | 2.0% |
Wageningen University | 1 093 | 1 311 | 1 338 | 1 381 | 1 512 | 1 586 | 4.9% |
Total | 42 319 | 45 400 | 44 275 | 43 876 | 47 292 | 52 573 | 11.2% |
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