Influx of HBO back to level before corona
The corona crisis caused a large wave of first-year HBO students in 2020, but this academic year the intake has fallen to a normal level. In total, the universities of applied sciences now have a record number of more than 492 thousand students.
Picture: Type tank
The total intake is 8,6 percent lower, and this decrease is entirely attributable to the HBO bachelor's degree programs (-10,7 percent). In particular, fewer havists started, according to the final counts. The number of first-year students in the associate degree and master's programs continued to grow, by 1,3 and 13,3 percent.
Chairman Maurice Limmen of the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences is pleased that the influx is back at pre-corona level. But a new problem arises. He fears that in September 2022 far fewer students will start at HBO if they receive a basic grant a year later.
Quick clarity
“It is very important that there is quickly clarity about how and when this change will be implemented,” says chairman Limmen. “There is a risk that students will postpone their studies for a year in anticipation of a more attractive form of student grant.”
There is a risk that students will postpone their studies for a year in anticipation of a more attractive form of student finance
The decrease in intake is smallest in nursing courses. Only 1,3 percent fewer first-years registered there in October: 7.381 to be exact, against 7.480 in 2020 and 6.511 in 2019.
Pabo
Compared to 2019, the intake at the PABOs also continues to grow: then there were 5.201 first-years and now 5.311, with an outlier of 6.845 in the record year of 2020.
Universities
At the universities, the figures of international students are particularly striking. This year, almost eighty thousand international students are studying at Dutch universities: 14 percent more than last year. The total number of students has risen to a record high of 340 thousand.
This is evident from the official counts published by the universities today. They seize the opportunity to appeal to politicians: they want more possibilities to control the influx of international students.
Universities want more options to manage the influx of international students
The universities have been complaining for years that the workload is spiraling out of control, partly because they are attracting more and more students. The Education Magazine spent last december attention recruiting these students with expensive bridging programs, while universities do complain about the growth. This sustained growth is partly due to the fact that so many programs are taught in English and that more and more foreign students are finding their way to the Netherlands. This is not without consequences: it is busy in the lecture hall and for some studies by lottery, Dutch students drop out in favor of internationals.
For some lottery studies, Dutch students drop out in favor of internationals
This week the House of Representatives is debating internationalization in higher education. The universities want to preserve the good sides of internationalisation, they say in a press release, while they want to keep the number of international students within limits in some degree programmes.
Wish
Their wish: they want to be able to set a numerus fixus for an English-language track within a popular study programme. Then there will automatically be a maximum number of international students, while Dutch students can start the Dutch-language variant without hindrance. There is a bill in the Senate that would make this possible, but due to the fall of the previous cabinet, it has been put on hold.
Universities also want programs to be allowed to set a maximum for the number of students from outside Europe. Then, for example, they treat Germans, Belgians and Swiss differently than Chinese, Indians and Brazilians.
The universities also want to be able to set an 'emergency fix' if a program grows unexpectedly. That is now not allowed by law. It must be clear in advance if a study program admits a limited number of students.
Freshmen
In 2020, a wave of first-year students came to the universities. This was due to the corona crisis: the central exams were cancelled, more students passed and a gap year made little sense. This year (2021) slightly fewer first-year students came to universities, but there are still more than in 2019, the year before the corona crisis broke out.
Three universities are an exception: they still saw the number of first-year bachelor students increase. These are the University of Amsterdam, the Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Twente. The strongest decrease in the intake is visible in Utrecht, Nijmegen, Eindhoven and Wageningen.
Flow through
The total number of bachelor's students increased by 3,5 percent, but the total number of master's students rose even faster: 4,9 percent. This is not only due to the foreign students, but also due to the number of HBO students who transfer to a master's degree at a university. “Last year, that number already increased by 21,3 percent and this year there is a new increase of 7,7 percent,” reports university association UNL.
Also read the article: 'Recruitment of foreign students is at odds with complaints about growth'. This article previously appeared in the Education Magazine. All members receive the magazine in the mailbox every month. Become a member!
