Competing for the brightest students?
This blog argues that vision and coherence are needed in Dutch international student recruitment policies at the national level. Some countries manage to do it, so why can’t we?
Competing for the brightest students?
Nuffic has published a new report: 'International student recruitment: policies and developments in selected countries'. The report aims to give Dutch policymakers at national and institutional levels an overview of national policy strategies and instruments related to international student recruitment in key 'recruiting' and 'target recruitment' countries. But the report also includes some comparative and strategic considerations.
Download the reportDutch benchmark results
The report suggests that the Netherlands is an attractive study destination in several ways. Compared to other non-native English-speaking nations, the Netherlands has a very high offer of English-taught degree programmes, with approximately 850 master’s and 250 bachelor’s courses fully taught in English.
Non-EU students have average legal opportunities to undertake paid work during their studies, and the Netherlands scores well with its ‘work search year’ that allows non-EU students to remain in the country to find employment on completion of their studies in the Netherlands.
On the other hand, the Netherlands has high non-EU student fees, compared to other EU countries (with the exception of the UK), high student visa costs, and few national government scholarships for foreign students. Also, the number of foreign students enrolled in full-master degree courses in the Netherlands is relatively low.
Of all foreign students that study for a BA or MA degree in the Netherlands, only 24% is enrolled at master’s level. At the national level, there is no clear policy strategy to emphasise foreign recruitment at master’s level. At the institutional level, this appears to be different.
Strategic focus areas
The country analyses in the Nuffic report indicate several interesting strategies.
First, national governments in several countries (excluding the Netherlands) have shifted their strategic focus from quantity to quality, with strong emphasis on master’s and PhD recruitment.
This strategy is often supported by national scholarship schemes targeting postgraduate foreign students (very few countries offer scholarships to foreign undergraduates).
Second, some national governments have linked international student recruitment to study areas that are considered crucial to their national economic policy.
This is the case in Germany and Switzerland, where attempts are made to channel international student flows into the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), plus tourism in the case of Switzerland. The Malaysian government is also trying to recruit foreign students to particular course areas that are important to national socio-economic development (Islamic finance, technology, health and tourism).
Integration of strategies
Also clear is that international student recruitment is increasingly being integrated into broader forms of international higher education co-operation, such as international double degree programmes and bilateral research collaborations, which include an element of international student mobility.
In the past decade, the German and UK governments in particular have allocated substantial levels of government funding to develop strategic higher education collaborations with countries such as India, Russia and China, for instance in the form of dual degree programmes. This has – among other things – encouraged international student mobility.
International student recruitment is often also supported by dedicated centres based abroad. These centres do not only include the higher education promotion offices in target recruitment countries (such as the foreign promotion offices established by organisations such as Nuffic, DAAD and CampusFrance).
They also include other kinds of offices, such as the Swiss science and technology centres that have been established in approximately 20 foreign countries to enhance scientific collaboration and that include international student mobility at master’s and doctoral levels.
They also include the German centres of excellence that are aimed at encouraging German and foreign higher education institutions to develop joint course programmes and organise student and staff exchanges. Interesting measures to attract talented foreign students at the postgraduate level.
Vision and consistency
The main conclusion of the report is that international student recruitment is most effective when there is a focused international student recruitment strategy, at the national level, that is:
- linked to national research agendas and bilateral collaboration;
- integrated with foreign economic and cultural policy;
- consistently pursued over a longer period of time.
Of course, national governments tend to focus on short-term gains. Still, national efforts in Germany and Switzerland in particular, indicate that it is possible to develop and implement a recruitment policy framework that is based on a clear vision that is integrated into wider bilateral strategies and consistently followed through.
Such a strategy will likely lead to the recruitment of more foreign students at postgraduate levels and a stronger competitive position in the international student recruitment market.