It was not only Maastricht who welcomed fewer foreign first years. All the Dutch universities have seen a drop in international interest: 6 per cent, on average. These are the results shown by the final registration figures published by the university association UNL. In its own press release, the umbrella organisation said it “is worried about the continued existence of programmes and the departure of international talent”. Of course, reference is made to politicians’ “rigorous legislative efforts”. The cabinet wants to use the Internationalisation in Balance Bill to significantly decrease the number of English-language degree programmes. There are also calls for more Dutch in the programmes. All the Dutch universities had already anticipated this by stopping any new English-language bachelor's programmes for now, and by not advertising for new students abroad. UNL is worried about the next few years, because there are already signs that academic year 2025-2026 won’t be a rosy one; they seem to point to an even more significant decrease.
Incredible drop
While the intake for bachelor's programmes in Maastricht may be down, the student population as a whole still seems to be growing. There are now 22,178 students at UM; according to UNL figures, last year, there were 21,842. The largest share of that is still from abroad: 61 per cent.
The detailed figures for UM show that the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) has the largest share of international students (82 per cent), followed by Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS, 80 per cent), and the School of Business and Engineering (SBE, 79 per cent). But even for the faculties of Law and Psychology it is (well) over half. The worst affected, considering the incredible drop in international first years, rather fittingly, is the most ‘international’: FSE. And not just their bachelor’s programmes (-17 per cent) but also their master’s programme (-20 per cent).
Dutch secondary school pupils
Finally, regarding the Dutch secondary school pupils and higher vocational students who came to Maastricht for a university degree, they seemed far less interested in economics and business degrees. Dutch prospective students were also not interested in FASoS and FSE. Meanwhile, the bachelor’s programme at the psychology faculty was incredibly popular among Dutch pupils (up by a third).