The number of international students scarcely needs to be reduced, Education Minister Eppo Bruins has confirmed to the Senate. His planned budget cuts may have already been achieved if numbers remain at their current level.

The coalition parties, PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB, believe that fewer international students should come to the Netherlands. To achieve this, they planned to implement a strict language policy and cut 293 million euros a year from the budget.

However, their proposals would not secure a Senate majority, forcing them to compromise. The three Christian parties in the House of Representatives and JA21 were willing to help. Their deal includes reducing the cut in the international student budget to a figure, over time, of 168 million euros a year.

Although the overall budget is set to pass smoothly, senators nonetheless raised questions about its details. GroenLinks-PvdA, for example, wanted to know whether this cut in the budget for the intake of international students was feasible.

Confirmation

Education Minister Eppo Bruins does not anticipate any problem, however. His response to the senators is consistent with an earlier analysis by the Higher Education Press Agency (HOP), who calculated that the remaining budget cut (rising to 168 million euros) has in fact already been achieved.

The Education Ministry actually anticipated an increase in the number of international students, and included this in the budget planning. Money had been set aside for that purpose. Therefore, if this increase fails to happen in the coming years, i.e. if the intake of new international students remains the same as now, the Education Ministry will end up spending less money than estimated, meaning the planned budget cut has already been realised.

Or, as Bruins puts it: “If this growth were to fail to materialise or at least be lower, that could already contribute significantly to achieving the remaining cuts that are planned.” This seems to be the case, although Bruins wants to wait and see the latest forecasts.

Regions

Interestingly, it was mostly the opposition parties that asked questions, as PVV, VVD and NSC had little need for clarification on the budget. BBB’s sole question concerned the situation of universities of applied sciences in regions with population decline: have agreements been made with them regarding the numbers of international students?

Bruins replied that no such agreements are in place. As universities of applied sciences in regions facing population decline mainly teach in Dutch, the measures announced will “affect them less, if at all”.

And otherwise, there is plenty of scope for programmes in the regions to demonstrate the usefulness and necessity of international students, Bruins believes. They could, for example, point to labour market shortages, the unique nature of their programmes, proximity to neighbouring countries, or put forward other arguments.

Translation: Taalcentrum-VU.