115,068 Int’l Students Enrolled in the Netherlands in 2021 – Germany, Romania and China Main Countries of Origin
According to the report “Incoming degree mobility in Dutch higher education 2021-22”, the top three countries of origin are now European, as Germany remains the top source market for students in the Netherlands, followed by Italy, Romania, China and Belgium, AtoZSerwisPlus.Ro reports.
More specifically, 24,500 German students were pursuing their academic careers, followed by Italians, who reached 7,200 – climbing the list from the third spot to second compared to the previous year. More Romanians (5,600) enrolled in Dutch universities during the academic year, as those became third on the list from the fifth spot, exchanging places with Belgian students who were listed fifth.
However, this wasn’t the case with Chinese students, as fewer of those opted for the Netherlands as a study destination. The number of Chinese students has dropped from 4,400 in 2017 to 4,500 in 2018 and 5,300 in 2021.
At an accelerated scale, the same has been the case with UK students who showed plunging enrollment rates.
“The United Kingdom saw a dramatic fall in the number of degree students it sent to the Netherlands this year (2,372, -760). Compared to 2020-21, there were almost 25 per cent fewer British students enrolled in Dutch higher education in 2021-22. This is likely an effect of the UK’s separation from the EU, which was completed in January 2021,” the report reads.
In addition, other third countries such as India and the United States showed little to no progress, with 3,363 Indian students enrolling in the Netherlands’ higher education institutions – 190 more than in the previous year, while 70 fewer students from the United States were recorded this year, reaching a total of 1,508.
Furthermore, the report shows that bachelor programmes have been the most requested among international students for the academic year, showing the fastest increase compared to the previous year, which reached 3,500.
The remaining source markets for international students in the 2021/2022 academic year in Dutch universities and colleges are as follows:
- Belgium (4,797)
- Spain (4,687)
- Bulgaria (4,607)
- France (4,294)
- Greece (3,862)
- Poland (3,554)
- India (3,363)
- United Kingdom (2,372)
- Ireland (2,017)
- Hungary (1,979)
- Turkey (1,849)
The search education platform, Erudera.com, which is backed by AI, has revealed that three in four international students in the Netherlands are European citizens – accounting for 72 per cent of all international students. This means that the number of such students has experienced a minor surge of one per cent, with the bloc’s students remaining a leading group.
