The previous cabinet had aimed to reduce the number of international students in the Netherlands. One of the proposed measures was to require universities and universities of applied sciences to offer certain English-taught programmes in Dutch instead.
The influx of international students and the growing use of English in higher education have been politically contentious for some time. Former education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf (D66) laid the groundwork for a legislative proposal titled ‘Balanced Internationalisation’. His successor, Eppo Bruins (NSC), has now been given the green light to continue work on it.
Language test dropped
The parliamentary education committee decided today that the proposal is not politically sensitive enough to be labelled “controversial”. That means the outgoing minister may continue developing it until the elections – and possibly even after, until a new cabinet is formed.
The most contentious element of the original proposal: a mandatory language assessment for non-Dutch-taught programmes, was recently scrapped. The test would have evaluated whether it made sense for a programme to be taught in English rather than Dutch. But under pressure from regional institutions and after a change of course by coalition parties NSC and VVD, the provision was removed.
Limiting competition
The other parts of the bill have faced little resistance. In the future, programmes may be allowed to introduce enrolment caps (numerus fixus) for their English-language tracks, while keeping Dutch-language tracks open. This would reduce competition between Dutch and international students. Programmes will also be given an emergency brake: if a sudden surge of non-EU students applies, they can halt enrolment.
Other education-related legislative proposals and debates will also go ahead, the education committee decided. The PVV did attempt to have one bill declared controversial: a proposal to attract top researchers from the United States, but failed to gain enough support.