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The Netherlands has faced a decline in the number of international students for the first time in nearly 20 years. According to Nuffic data, 129,764 foreign citizens are studying at the country's universities in the 2025/26 academic year. The decline was minimal — just 133 people compared to the previous year — however, the fact itself proved significant, as nothing like this had occurred since statistics began being recorded in 2006. Despite the overall number of foreign students remaining virtually unchanged, the statistics reveal a new trend. The main decline is observed among undergraduate applicants, which may affect the overall situation in the coming years.
The number of new international students decreased by 0.4% to 48,139 people at:
- Research universities, the number of new students decreased by 3.8%,
- Universities of applied sciences (HBO) — by 2.9%.
According to Nuffic researchers, it is precisely the decline in enrollment in bachelor's programs that may signal a further decrease in the total number of foreign students in the future.
At the same time, against the backdrop of declining interest in bachelor's programs, master's programs continue to grow — in 2025/26, the number of new foreign students in master's programs increased by:
- 2.9% at research universities,
- 8.4% at HBO.
However, experts note an important detail: part of this growth was driven by students who were already studying in the Netherlands at the bachelor's level and simply continued into a master's program. If such students are excluded from the statistics, the growth turns out to be significantly less pronounced.
Germany remains the main source of foreign students for Dutch universities: despite a decrease of 8.4%, there are 18,000+ German students studying in the country. The top five largest student-sending countries were:
- Germany — 18,241 students,
- Italy — 8,686 students,
- Romania — 7,659,
- Spain — 6,747,
- Poland — 5,961.
China has dropped out of the top five for the first time since the 2006/07 academic year and fell to seventh place: the number of Chinese students decreased by nearly 17%, while the number of new enrollments dropped by as much as 27.5%.
At the same time, new fast-growing markets are emerging. Particularly notable is the growing interest from Turkey, where the number of students increased by 15.9%. India is also showing positive dynamics: the number of students grew by 3.5%, and the number of master's students increased by as much as 16.5%. Today, 72%+ of all foreign students in the Netherlands come from European Economic Area (EEA) countries.
Despite the first decline in statistics in many years, the Netherlands remains one of the most attractive destinations for international education in Europe: the country continues to invest in the quality of education, maintains a wide range of English-language programs, and is very interested in attracting talented students to the fields of engineering, technology, and science. For prospective students, this is actually not the worst signal: competition for places may become more balanced, and the prospects for studying and employment after graduation remain very strong.
