Higher Percentage of International Students in the Netherlands

The percentage of international students in the Netherlands continues to rise. In the past academic year, one in ten students at research universities came from abroad. Five years ago this was only 7%, or one in fourteen.
© NUFFIC

At universities of applied sciences the increase was smaller: from 6% in 2006 to 6.5% now. In total there are 81,700 international students in the Netherlands, coming from 61 different countries. These are some of the outcomes of ‘Mapping Mobility 2011’, a publication issued by Nuffic for the second year in a row.

Wittenborg: the Most International Private Business School in the Netherlands
Wittenborg Business School has, in contrast to many other universities in the Netherlands, students from truly all over the world, and not only from e.g. Germany and China.

At the moment, 75,9% of all students at Wittenborg are international. Nearly 40 nationalities are represented at Wittenborg at the moment.

Other Highlights
The publication also shows that the number of students in the Netherlands coming from the BRIC countries (the growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China) is on the rise. Nuffic actively promotes Dutch higher education in these countries through its Netherlands Education Support Offices.

Dutch Students Abroad
A total of 42,500 Dutch students went to study abroad, in a total of 80 different countries (figures from 2008). Their favourite destinations were the UK, Belgium, Germany, the US and Spain.

Nuffic thinks that many Dutch students are still not aware of the opportunities that await them abroad. The organisation encourages Dutch students to spend a period of time studying abroad, through its www.wilweg.nl website.

More Information
You can download ‘Mapping Mobility 2011’ from the mobility statistics page of the Nuffic website.