Students in a lecture room. Photo Guy Ackermans That means that approximately 65 fewer Dutch students will enrol in a bachelor programme in Wageningen next academic year compared to this year. However, the number of international students starting a bachelor programme is likely to increase, but not by enough to compensate for the drop in Dutch students.
‘A total of 1310 Dutch students started their bachelor’s at Wageningen University this year. We expect that number to drop to 1245 next academic year’, says Geertje Braat of Education & Student Affairs. Other universities experience a similar decline. Braat: ‘At a national level, the number of Dutch pre-enrolments has dropped by 2.4 per cent.’
The influx of international students from the European Economic Area (EEA) and beyond (non-EEA) appears to be increasing by 15 and 5 per cent, respectively. ‘That may seem a lot, but the total number of internationals enrolling in a bachelor’s programme is much smaller’, Braat clarifies. ‘We now expect 109 instead of 95 EEA students, while the numbers are even smaller for non-EEA students.’
An added difficulty is that the predictions about international students are less trustworthy, according to Braat. ‘All pre-enrolments are weighted based on the number of Dutch-spoken programmes for which a student has enrolled. Students are able to enrol in more than one programme, and if someone enrols in two programmes, they only count as half an enrolment in the weighed pre-enrolments.’
Estimate
However, if students also enrol in a university outside of the Netherlands, this enrollment is not weighed as there is no way to know about it. ‘We simply have no idea. Moreover, whether non-EEA students eventually come to the Netherlands depends on scholarship programmes, which contributes to the uncertainty. We can only estimate how many students will make it to Wageningen based on historical data of the number of pre-enrolments who eventually started their studies in Wageningen.’
The influx of students in the master’s programmes appears to be increasing slightly, Braat states. ‘We expect the number of new Dutch students who start a master’s programme at WU to increase by about ten per cent.’
The definitive enrolment numbers are expected in the course of October.
