According to EP-Nuffic, the Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education, that is a record number: 24 percent of the students who graduated in the study year 2013-2014 crossed borders for an exchange programme or internship. In the 2012-2013 academic year, that was 22 percent.
Nearly half of the students with foreign experience makes use of an Erasmus+ scholarship. In 2006, 6,000 students used the European subsidy programme. Ten years later, this number has doubled.
About 13,700 Dutch students are doing a full bachelor’s or master’s programme abroad. This is 2 per cent of all students. The European average is 3.3 per cent. Since 2007, students are able to bring their Dutch study loan abroad, provided that the quality of the study programme is adequate. In 2015-2016, two-thirds of the students going abroad used this option.
‘More funding’
Student organisation ISO feels that there needs to be more funding for students who want to do part of their studies abroad. ‘Interest on the part of the students is increasing, but the budget for exchanges is not changing. We’re already hearing reports of students who want to go abroad for six months who are receiving only half a scholarship’, chairman Jan Sinnige says.
The RUG wants at least half of the students eligible to go abroad actually do so. This number is now about 30 percent. Students who do not go abroad often fear a delay in their studies or are not informed of any available scholarships.