| Maastricht University

“Internationalization in Balance” bill: a cross-border impact assessment of higher education

At the end of 2022, the House of Representatives instructed the Dutch government to take measures against the influx of international students in higher education. In response, the Ministry of Education requested Dutch higher education to stop actively recruiting international students and to limit this recruitment to specific programs. Following this request, the legislative proposal “The Act on Internationalization in Balance” has been published for open consultation. [1] This proposal calls for two-thirds of associate degree and bachelor’s programs to be taught in Dutch; numerous fixus to be implemented on the total number of international students from outside the EU; and a stringent test to be carried out on the programs that are not taught in Dutch. This legislative proposal has given rise to various questions such as the effects on the border-region universities that strive to retain international prestige and are dependent on the influx of international talents to contribute to the education and research in the Netherlands.