Photo Guy Ackermans
This is in response to the call to do so by the Education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf. The idea behind the temporary stop is to relieve the pressure on teachers, accommodation and education facilities.
According to Student Recruitment team leader Renske van Dijk, this means specifically that WUR will no longer attend university fairs abroad. ‘We didn’t do that much anyway, but now we won’t be doing it at all. We have also stopped our online campaigns for the recruitment of internationals. This applies to international students both from Europe and elsewhere.’
The reason for the minister’s call is the substantial growth in the number of international students coming to the Netherlands to study. At many universities, the internationals are mainly from Europe. The academic and applied universities are not allowed to refuse them admission, but the minister is looking for a way around that.
Recruitment or information
WUR has a limited intake of European students, says Van Dijk: ‘But we have a relatively large number of students from outside Europe. You have more possibilities for controlling the intake of those students.’ A quarter of the students at WUR are from outside Europe.
We have also stopped our online campaigns for the recruitment of internationals
Incidentally, it is not clear what is allowed and what not, says Van Dijk. ‘What counts as recruitment and what as providing information? The open days are for everyone, but we no longer explicitly invite internationals. The online open days are continuing as usual.’
Van Dijk finds it difficult to assess what effect the recruitment freeze will have on the number of students coming to WUR. ‘It depends on how strict the rules become. The minister is due to come up with more details on the policy. If we are no longer allowed to provide information, that could have a significant effect. But we will only see the impact in the preliminary registrations later in the year.’
