Radboud University is continuing to grow. This year, it has almost 20,000 students. The latest influx was 507 more than last year, largely thanks to six new English-taught Bachelor’s programmes. Now that the new intake of first-year students has been counted, here are the statistics.

How many students are there on the campus?
19,899: more than ever. Flags stuck into the map of the world show that these students come from more than 90 different countries, which is another record. At present, 21% of all first-year students come from outside the Netherlands.

So the number of first-year students is also on the increase?
Yes, there are 507 more than last year. In total, the university welcomed 4,574 new students this year. Do note that besides the Bachelor’s students, this number includes newcomers enrolled in pre-Master’s and Master’s degree programmes in Nijmegen.

Have the six new English-taught Bachelor’s programmes attracted a lot of students?
Absolutely: the three entirely new tracks (two in the Faculty of Arts and one in Psychology) are responsible for 525 first-year students. The other three English-taught programmes (for which existing Dutch programmes have been ‘translated’ into English) account for another 290 first-years. Not all of them are international students; 325 Dutch students have also enrolled in the English-taught programmes (total for all six).

Are international students the university’s new cash cow?
That’s something we often hear. People are referring to the high tuition fees that students from outside the European zone are charged for their programmes. These are the so-called ‘institutional tuition fees’, for which universities can set their own rates and which can rise to € 20,000. Not in Nijmegen. The tuition fees for Medicine are € 16,000, for a science degree € 10,000 and for the remaining programmes, € 6-7,000. In addition, the majority of newcomers come from within the European zone and pay regular tuition fees. Rector Magnificus Han van Krieken calculated the proportion of institutional tuition fees in relation to the total university income in a meeting of the University Council yesterday. This figure came to less than one thousandth, so hardy a cash cow!

Where do the first-year international students come from?
Germany is the most common country of origin for each of the six new Bachelor’s programmes. In fact, 80% of the 424 first-year students enrolled in the Bachelor’s programme in Psychology come from Germany. But in general, they come from all around the world: the university attracts first-year students from a staggering 78 different countries. In Europe, Italy and Rumania are the second and third most common countries, and outside Europe, Brazil leads the way with 19 first-year students, followed by China and Vietnam (both 16).

[kader-xl] Six new Bachelor’s programmes
Arts and Culture Studies: 14 first-year students (3 Dutch)
Chemistry: 53 (47)
Molecular Life Science: 81 (59)
International Business Communication: 86 (54)
Artificial Intelligence: 156 (120)
Psychology: 424 (42) [/kader-xl]