In the column, professor Van Dongen states that none of his son’s classmates—who all live in the Eindhoven area—have been admitted to TU/e’s Mechanical Engineering or Architecture, Building and Planning programs. They applied to these programs, which have an intake restriction, and were informed on April 15 that they had not been admitted.

The high school students are now on a TU/e waiting list, meaning they still have a chance of being accepted. But it does feel like they’ve been rejected, Van Dongen notes. “What we are left with are disillusioned students who now have to look for a program elsewhere, where they are confronted with the housing shortage and the associated stress,” he wrote in the opinion piece.

MP Boomsma refers the minister, Rianne Letschert, to the Cursor column and asks whether she also considers it undesirable that TU/e rejects students who already live in Eindhoven, while the region has a strong demand for mechanical engineers and computer scientists.

Local context

In his column, Van Dongen also cites figures from TU/e’s PowerBI data portal showing the proportion of Dutch applicants versus international applicants. In all programs with an intake restriction, Dutch applicants are in the minority.

This is the point Boomsma focuses on. In follow-up questions, he addresses the decreasing chances for Dutch students compared to international applicants. “Do you agree that it is an undesirable consequence of applying an intake restriction to an English-taught program that Dutch students from the local region have a high chance of missing out?” Boomsma asks.

He also asks the minister: “Do you agree that it is the primary responsibility of the Dutch government to ensure that Dutch students are able to pursue these studies, preferably—and if they wish—in their own region?”

Contact

Van Dongen does not want to follow Boomsma in this line of reasoning. He contacted the MP and emphasized that his concern is specifically about the university’s local role, not about the nationality of students. In his reply, Boomsma expressed understanding but also made clear that he is seeking a solution by having universities offer enough courses in Dutch, thereby attracting fewer international students.

Van Dongen hopes that the discussion sparked by his column will lead to a solution to the fact that, by law, universities are not allowed to distinguish between students who live nearby and those who live further away. “In that case, the nationality of the applicant would no longer matter at all.”

This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.