Growth of international student cohort slows

More and more foreign students enroll at Dutch universities, but their number has not increased dramatically this year. The number of international students enrolled in a Master’s program has remained almost unchanged nationwide. At TU/e, that number even declined from 330 international Master’s students in the academic year 2018-2019, to 270 this year.

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The latest counts, received from the universities today, show that the number of international students studying on bachelor’s degree programs has doubled since 2015, from 6,800 to 13,900. However, most of the real growth came in the preceding years, with increases of between 20 and 30 percent. This year’s increase was 7 percent.

The number of international first-year students on master’s degree programs has risen from 8,100 to 10,000 since 2015 - an increase of almost a quarter - but that growth appears to have reached a plateau, with this year’s cohort increasing by just 0.8 percent.

Inflow at TU/e

The inflow of international students enrolled in Bachelor’s and Master’s programs at TU/e this academic year (604) remained practically the same as in the previous year (613). In the academic year 2018-2019, TU/e welcomed 283 Bachelor’s and 330 Master’s students from abroad. The number of international Bachelor’s students increased to 334 students this year, but the inflow of international Master’s students strongly declined: from 330 to 270 students.  Most of the ‘blame’ for this lies with students from outside the European Economic Area. Their number was 256 last academic year, against a mere 199 this year.

Kritiek

Universities have faced increased criticism in recent years due to the unbridled growth of their international student enrollments. They have been accused of anglicising the education they offer for purely mercenary reasons: more students means more money.

On the other hand, the universities are keen to stress how internationalisation benefits the quality of their education: it is usually the more motivated students who decide to study abroad. International students can also boost disciplines that would otherwise attract too few students, such as technical subjects.

Higher professional education enrollments increased by 6 percent this year, while there was a slight decrease in the number of high school pupils in pre-university education. In total, 303,299 students are enrolled at Dutch universities, an increase of 4.2 percent over the previous academic year.

With the most enrolments for bachelor’s degree programs, the University of Amsterdam took the top spot from Groningen. The University of Amsterdam is also the biggest enroller when it comes to master’s degree programs.

In absolute numbers, TU/e occupies second to last place with 2,212 first-year students, beating only Wageningen University (1,445 first-year students). The University of Twente overtook TU/e this year with 2,485 first-year students. Last year, the number of first-year students in Enschede was 2, 218.

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