The Dutch cabinet says that it wants Germany to pay for the
growing number of German students studying in the Netherlands. This
is what Junior Minister for Education, Halbe Zijlstra, laid out in
a statement to the Dutch parliament.
According to Zijlstra, internationalization could increase
quality of education at Dutch universities as it prepares domestic
students for global labor markets and opens the Netherlands to
young talents. Too much of it, however, would be unaffordable
costing the government currently around €90 million per year.
Zijlstra admits that this is only based on calculating
short-term costs and benefits excluding additional income from
increased tax and VAT revenues. Furthermore, foreign students would
on average score higher than their Dutch classmates. Most
successful is the German student body that scores half a point
better on the Dutch scale between 0 and 10, while graduating at a
rate that is 25% higher compared to the rest.
Dutch for the Dutch, English for the rest
Nevertheless, Zijlstra announced that the Dutch government would
look into ways of having Germany contribute to the costs incurred.
Most of the 24.000 German students come from border regions like
Nordrhein-Westfalen which should then participate in a funding
transfer scheme.
In addition to this, Zijlstra calls upon Dutch universities to
scrap classes that are only taught in German. English language
classes should furthermore only be given in "international
classrooms" while classes dominated by Dutch students should be
taught in Dutch.
Meanwhile, the Dutch government aims at expanding the share of
Dutch students studying a complete degree or at least part of it
abroad. With 2,7% and 17%, respectively, these rates appear rather
low compared to the European average.