Dutch students are not eager to go abroad
04 Jul 2008
In comparison with colleagues in other countries, Dutch students are not eager to go abroad. In this respect our country scores low on the European Union list. And of those Dutch students who do study across the border, the large majority choose one of the neighbouring countries: the United Kingdom, Flanders and Germany. Not even a quarter of recently graduated students in the Netherlands has gone abroad for study-related activities.
However, in primary, secondary and professionally-oriented education, as well as adult education (BVE), there is an increase in activities with other countries. The biggest percentage of growth in terms of international mobility is recorded in BVE education. Since 2003 this has more than doubled. These are the main findings of the 2007 Internationalization monitor, compiled by Nuffic, CINOP and the European Platform, on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.
In primary education, the number of schools with international activity has risen from 5.8% to 7.3%. In senior general secondary education (havo) and pre-university education (vwo) about 10% of pupils are internationally mobile. There is also a better integration of these activities in the curriculum. Despite the steady growth of mobility in BVE, the percentage of BVE-students who go abroad during their studies is still less than 0.5.
The percentage of higher education students who go abroad declined from 2.4% to 2.3% of the total number of students in the Netherlands. The fact that, since September 2007, Dutch student grants and loans have become portable, has not yet had a spectacular impact. As expected, the number of Dutch people who follow a programme of higher education abroad rose only slightly. The number of destination countries did soar, from 15 to 54. 65% of these students still go to Flanders. The Catholic University in Leuven is in the lead with 700 Dutch students.
The number of international students at Dutch universities is increasing. Mobility in higher professional education (hbo) has stabilized. Forty percent of the more than 40,000 international students registered at Dutch institutions are from Germany. The number of registered international students increased to 6.9% in the 2007-2008 period, which is below the European average of 7.2%. With regard to the international composition of the list of centrally-registered students, the University of Maastricht and, for higher professional education, the arts courses are taking the lead.
Outbound credit mobility, as part of a study programme at their own institution, is most reported by graduates of the Hotel School The Hague, HAS Den Bosch, Wageningen University and the University of Maastricht. Annual research by the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA) of the University of Maastricht continues to show that students can benefit from international experiences during their studies.
Since the beginning of this century Nuffic, the Netherlands organization for international cooperation in higher education, has been collecting quantitative data on the international mobility of students. Over time, the provision of data has much improved. However, the registration of country of prior education still leaves room for improvement in the Netherlands.
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Download the full report or the comprehensive factsheet from the special page on mobility.