Focusing in on the rankings’ methodology, which measures each worldwide college and scholar ratio, The PIE News checked out how some of the nation’s main universities included within the desk fared in contrast to final 12 months’s figures.
While worldwide scholar numbers are still increasing within the Netherlands regardless of plans to curb internationalisation altogether, they’re rising at a slower charge than they’ve for nearly a decade – and worldwide scholar ratios are seeing small, incremental adjustments that paint a scattered image.
“If an establishment is attracting a sizeable inhabitants of worldwide college students, this has advantages in phrases of networking, cultural exchanges, a extra various studying expertise and alumni variety.
“Further, if an institution is attracting a sizeable number of overseas students, it follows that it is attractive enough to do so,” QS stated, concerning its methodology on worldwide scholar ratios.
The Delft University of Technology, which stays the nation’s high establishment within the rating regardless of falling from joint 47th to 49th, noticed its worldwide scholar ratio go up, from a rating of 89.3 to 91.4.
It’s essential to level out the ratio doesn’t denote the share of precise worldwide college students within the scholar physique – QS’ info says that 7,334 out of 20,888 college students are worldwide at Delft, for instance.
The University of Amsterdam is the one different Dutch establishment within the high 100, touchdown at 55th, dropping from 53rd in final 12 months’s desk. Its worldwide scholar ratio, nonetheless, has jumped from 79.9 to 87.5.
International scholar ratios on QS’ rankings do embody EU college students, who wouldn’t usually be affected by proposed internationalisation curbs within the Netherlands.
If an establishment is attracting a sizeable quantity of abroad college students it follows that it’s engaging sufficient to accomplish that
QS
But some universities have additionally seen drops within the worldwide scholar ratio within the final two to three years, because the housing crisis emerged and lobbying against international student recruitment started.
Utrecht University has not had a really perfect worldwide scholar ratio for a while – however still exhibits a gentle decline. In 2022, it had a rating of 24, 2023’s desk noticed drop barely sharply to 23.1, then 21.2. Meanwhile, within the QS World Rankings 2025, it scored underneath 20 for the primary time at 19.4.
The University of Twente, which was vocal as half of the Technical Universities alliance in advocating for internationalisation, dropped within the rankings by 20 locations, however solely noticed its worldwide scholar ratio drop from 91.1 to 90.4 – and has a world college ratio of 100, exhibiting it’s still holding onto its worldwide id.
Notably, Twente was the primary college within the nation to adopt English as its official language.
Maastricht, which has all the time been often known as an exceedingly worldwide college, has seen its finest rating general because the pandemic at 230 – up from joint 256th final 12 months.
However, for the primary time, after years of a world scholar ratio rating of 100, Maastricht has dropped, albeit solely by a sixth of a degree, to 99.4. While it’s not a crash-and-burn drop, it might sign that the tides within the Netherlands is perhaps altering.
These smaller adjustments appear to sign that whereas there could also be some establishments feeling the results, they could not translate into the rankings till a minimum of subsequent 12 months or the 12 months after.
But by then, relying on what Geert Wilders’ government decides to do to additional reduce web migration, there could also be much more stringent restrictions on internationalisation.
