The Amsterdammer

“Even if you study, you’re surrounded by Dutch students who want to enroll in English tracks, even though they have the possibility of enrolling in the Dutch track. It’s simply more practical in life to have a diploma which proves that you have finished your studies in an English language, because then your market opportunities extend to the whole world and not just the Netherlands, as would happen if you had studied in Dutch,” states Ognjen Pavlović, a 24-year-old international student who completed a bachelor’s at UvA and is starting a master’s program at Leiden University. 

A 22-year-old Dutch student pursuing a bachelor’s in psychology at UvA shares similar ideas: “I did an entire bachelor’s in Dutch, but still, all my lectures and my books were in English. Even the assignments were in English, though everyone in the course was Dutch, including the teachers, because all the material was in English. All the research published in the field was in English. We are in an era of globalization, and we cannot avoid it. So, in a way, it doesn’t really matter whether there’s a lot of international students or the courses are in English because I would have to study in English anyways.”

To some, the language debate raises broader concerns about the accessibility and practicality of Dutch language instruction for international students.

The current government has emphasized that international students should learn Dutch. In a letter sent to the House of Representatives in mid-October, the Minister of Education, Culture and Science Eppo Bruins stated: “Over the past several years international student numbers have grown sharply, resulting in major student housing shortages, crowded lecture halls and diminishing use of Dutch as the language of instruction. Measures are needed to reverse these trends. I want to restore Dutch as the norm. This will improve students’ proficiency in Dutch and help retain international students after they graduate, for the benefit of the Dutch economy and society in general.” 

The passage of the WIB and the subsequent reduction in state funding to support the intake of international students are the resulting outcomes of this policy. These resolutions aim to lessen the number of programs instructed in English to attract international students with a certain established level of Dutch proficiency. At the same time, international students are pointing to the problem of inadequate accessibility of Dutch language courses.  

Áron Vekerle, a current international student at VU, adds the perspective of a current international student facing multiple challenges: “You have a lot on your plate as an international student. Most internationals deal with integrating into a new university, which also means a new friend group and new people. That’s stressful by itself. Most of them just moved out of their parents’ house, found a new place, and had to move in. And the Dutch housing market is ruthless. On top of that, you have high demands at university. And I guess half of my friends or even more also have to take part-time jobs to survive. On top of all these things, it is really hard to prioritize learning the language, which I definitely think we should do. I’m just saying that if you put so much pressure and so little support on international students, they will not have the energy to do that.”

The consensus among foreign students seems to be that added support, rather than taking it away, would facilitate the learning of Dutch among internationals.

Another international student talks about the pressure of integrating linguistically into Dutch society due to the high cost and inconvenience of finding Dutch language courses. “I feel a lot of guilt for not speaking Dutch and for not taking Dutch courses outside of university, but at the same time, I don’t have the time or the money to organize that by myself outside of my studies. It should be way more convenient and affordable than it is,” they say.

Eppo Bruins referred to major housing shortages as a rationale behind the initiative to curb the number of international students planning to start their studies in the Netherlands. On his visit to the Netherlands in December last year, the UN special rapporteur Balakrishnan Rajagopal assessed the state of the housing crisis, its causes, and potential solutions. In an extensive report published in February this year, Rajagopal outlined numerous structural problems made over the last few decades that have culminated in a present-day acute housing crisis, writing, “This crisis has had a long gestation over two or more decades, and has many structural causes including lack of adequate land for new affordable housing, lack of regulation of the social housing providers, introduction of income limits for eligibility, lack of rent caps or their enforcement in the private rental sector, insufficient attention to the role of speculation and large investors in the real estate market, and insufficient protection of renters’ rights including through eviction prevention.”

Furthermore, he urged against weaponizing migrants as a scapegoat for these problems: “But an alternative narrative has emerged in the Netherlands that an “influx of foreigners” arriving in the country is responsible for the housing crisis, which has been exploited for political ends and has radicalized and divided public opinion.”