State of Student Recruitment in the Netherlands

The Netherlands is one of the first countries in Western Europe to pass legislation directly limiting international student intake. What that policy means for universities recruiting internationally, and what Dutch institutions have learned from years of running mixed-nationality cohorts, is the subject of Episode 11 of Higher Ed Chats.

Scott Miller, host and Keystone Education Group, sits down with Bas Baalmans, Managing Director of the Groningen Digital Business Centre (GDBC) at the University of Groningen, to look at how one of the Netherlands' most internationally active faculties is handling a fast-changing regulatory environment, and what the outcomes they're seeing in mixed cohorts say about the real value of international student recruitment.

Groningen is an instructive case. Four out of ten students at its Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) are international, making it a genuine test bed for internationalization at scale. The city ranks as the second most digital in the Netherlands, and GDBC runs 10 digital transformation projects per 10-week block, each staffed by students consulting for real clients. That operational context shapes everything Bas says about what works.

The conversation covers the Balanced Internationalization Act in some depth. The Dutch legislation creates a hard link between housing availability and student intake, and Groningen has already adjusted its outreach accordingly, advising prospective international students not to arrive without secured housing by August. That's a concrete recruitment variable most institutions haven't yet built into their strategy.

But the conversation's most pointed section is the quality argument for mixed cohorts. Bas is direct about what the data from GDBC's student consultancy projects shows: teams with a combination of Dutch and international students consistently produce better deliverables than all-Dutch teams. In his words: "I see far better results, far better deliverables from project teams, where we do have a combination of international students with Dutch students, related to the results that only Dutch students, for example, have." That's not a political point. It's an operational one.

The episode also covers language policy (why a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't hold up when law degrees and international business degrees have fundamentally different needs), and the internal digital transformation challenge that universities often overlook: they advise companies to transform, but their own teaching and research models need the same rethinking. Bas flags a finding from COVID that most institutions haven't fully absorbed, that the digital readiness of incoming students was far lower than assumed.

Who’s in the episode?

Bas Baalmans is the Managing Director at Groningen Digital Business Centre at the University of Groningen, where his work with international students has allowed him to collaborate with universities in the United States and Europe. Bas has been paying close attention to the proposed "Balanced Internationalization Act" that could be introduced in the Netherlands due to concerns about overcrowding at Dutch universities.

Scott Miller is the host of Keystone Higher Ed Chats and the Executive Director of Keystone's international division, bringing over 11 years of EdTech experience to conversations about global education.

After graduating from DePauw University, living and working in different cultures showed him that stepping outside your comfort zone doesn't just broaden your horizons; it reshapes them entirely. That belief in the transformative power of international experiences brought Scott to Keystone in 2010, where he's spent over a decade (and counting) helping higher education institutions reach students worldwide.

On Keystone Higher Ed Chats, Scott speaks with thought-leaders in the industry about what he's most passionate about: how education changes lives, how cultural experiences broaden perspectives at any age, and how Keystone's mission—connecting students with their ideal higher education institution—makes those life-changing moments possible.

Timestamps & Takeaways

Timestamps

Takeaways

Treat housing availability as a formal part of your Netherlands recruitment process
Groningen now advises incoming international students not to travel without confirmed housing before August. That's not a pastoral note, it's a structural shift in how the university manages enrollment risk under the Balanced Internationalization Act. Institutions recruiting into Dutch universities should build housing status into their pre-arrival communications, not leave it as a student responsibility to discover at the last minute.

Make the quality case for international cohorts with your own outcome data
Bas Baalmans cited direct observation across student consultancy projects: teams with a mix of Dutch and international students consistently produced better client deliverables than all-Dutch teams. That's the kind of specific, internally sourced evidence that cuts through political debate about internationalization. If your institution runs project-based or client-facing curricula, start tracking performance by cohort composition. That data becomes your strongest argument when facing regulatory or public pressure.

Don't apply a single language policy across your program portfolio
The Dutch legislation isn't a blanket English ban. It's study-specific. Groningen's law faculty teaches in Dutch; its international business faculty teaches in English. Institutions that haven't audited which programs actually require English instruction (and which are English-by-default out of convenience) are exposed when regulators ask the question. A program-by-program review now is faster and cheaper than a reactive policy overhaul later.

The Netherlands is the early signal, not the outlier — watch Italy, UK, and Canada
Bas framed the Balanced Internationalization Act as part of a wider pattern of recruitment restrictions spreading across markets. Italy, the UK, and Canada are moving in a similar direction. Diversifying geographic recruitment pipelines isn't optional contingency planning at this point. It's the base strategy. Institutions overly reliant on a single international source market should treat this conversation as a prompt to review their pipeline concentration.

Audit your digital readiness assumptions before designing hybrid or digital programs
The assumption that younger students arrive digitally ready collapsed during COVID. As Bas put it: "the digital readiness and the digital skills of students where we maybe did expect was far more higher than it absolutely was." GDBC runs formal readiness scans to baseline company capability before beginning digital transformation projects. Universities designing online or hybrid programs should run comparable assessments on entering cohorts rather than assuming skill levels that may not exist.

Universities can't credibly lead digital transformation externally without doing it internally
This is the tension Bas called out directly. GDBC works with companies on digital transformation while the host institution is still working through the same challenge with its own faculty, professors, and students. That's not a contradiction to paper over, it's a genuine strategic priority. Marketing teams that position their institution as a digital-forward partner to industry need to be able to point to concrete internal programs, not just client-facing credentials.

Request a call

State of Student Recruitment in the Netherlands

Who’s in the episode?

Bas Baalmans

Scott Miller

Timestamps & Takeaways

Timestamps

Takeaways

You may also like

How the Trump Administration is Reshaping Higher Education

Let’s talk