For years, policymakers have been debating how to curb the number of international students in higher education, especially at universities. Various ministers submitted bills to address the issue, but so far none have made it to the finish line.
Now education minister Gouke Moes is making another attempt to get the Balanced Internationalisation Act (WIB) one step closer to adoption by submitting the bill to the Council of State for review.
Moes has ‘inherited’ the bill from his predecessor, Eppo Bruins, who in turn took over the project from Robbert Dijkgraaf. Despite the outgoing government’s caretaker status, the House of Representatives has allowed Moes to continue working on it.
Language review
Last year, then-minister Bruins had to promise the House of Representatives to relax the bill’s language review requirement. This requirement meant that English-taught programmes would be forced to switch to Dutch unless they could provide a compelling reason for using English.
Bruins amended the bill to ensure that existing programmes would not be subject to this language review. The requirement still applies to new programmes, however, which will have to convince the ‘Efficiency Committee’ that a new non-Dutch programme is necessary.
Third time
This marks the third time that a version of the Internationalisation bill has been sent to the Council of State. Regarding the first plan, submitted by Ingrid van Engelshoven in 2019, the Council noted that it was unclear what problem it was meant to solve. The second proposal, by Dijkgraaf, was deemed too restrictive by the Council, especially for existing programmes.
Citing a number of different reasons, the House of Representatives last year demanded a relaxation of the language review requirement. The growth in the number of international students had been lower than projected, and educational institutions and businesses – particularly those outside the Randstad area – were raising concerns about the proposed policy and labour shortages.
Budget cuts
During Dijkgraaf’s term in office, universities promised to stop actively recruiting international students. This meant that the budget reduction goals for international students set by Dick Schoof’s government were more or less automatically met.
The Council of State usually takes around two months to issue an advisory opinion. If this opinion is positive, the bill will be sent to the House of Representatives.