Cabinet fears large influx of German students

The Dutch government wants Germany to pay a share of the cost of educating the increasing number of German students coming to the Netherlands, state secretary of education Halbe Zijlstra said in a briefing to parliament last week.

In some border areas higher education institutions seem to need German students to survive, is the impression of Zijlstra, according to the briefing. To attract these students, the colleges have started to offer courses which are in entirely in German. State secretary Zijlstra now fears ’serious negative consequences’ for the quality of some study programmes. If the schools are not able to restore the balance between Dutch and German students they face eventual closure, he warned.

At the moment about 24,000 German students are studying at Dutch universities and professional higher education institutions. According to the state secretary the total is increasing by 14% a year.

The Netherlands pay a difference of  90 million euros a year for foreign students because more students come to the Netherlands than Dutch students go abroad, the minister said. In addition to talking with Gemany about a financial compensation for German students in the Netherlands, the state secretary wants more to be done to encourage Dutch students to study abroad.