On 21 February, Nuffic published a new analysis on outgoing mobility of Dutch higher education students. The study was conducted by Saoradh Favier and Anneloes Slappendel-Henschen, based on the outgoing degree and credit mobility data collected from various sources including UNESCO, the Central Bureau of Statistics, and the Erasmus+ programme for the period 2005-2021.

According to the report, the number of Dutch students going abroad for a degree programme almost doubled in 2019 compared to 2009, totalling more than 20,000 students (3% of all Dutch degree students in 2019 compared to 1.7% in 2009). The Netherlands lags behind the European Education Area (EEA) average when it comes to degree mobility abroad; however, participation in credit mobility is above the EEA average. More than 14 000 students participated in the Erasmus+ programme in 2018-2019 to do an internship or study abroad.

Other main takeaways from the report are as follows:

• Belgium, UK and US remain top destinations for Dutch degree-seeking students who study in 98 different countries, three-quarters of which lie within the EEA.
• Most popular destinations for short-term mobility are Spain, the UK and Germany.

As a result of Brexit, the number of Dutch students studying in the UK with a portable state grant reduced by 19.3% between 2020 and 2021 due to the tuition fees increase and new visa requirements, while the number of students studying in the US and in Sweden increased by 23.3% and 25.1% respectively. The Covid-19 pandemic particularly affected the outgoing credit mobility. According to a survey conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics where more than 150 000 students participate annually, the outgoing credit mobility decreased to 14% for the 2020-2021 cohort from 25% for the 2018-2019 cohort.

Read the full report in English and in Dutch.