This month, ACA’s Dutch member, the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education (Nuffic), celebrated its 60th anniversary. The occasion was marked by a commemorative conference in The Hague on 11 January, which brought together stakeholders from across the country to both reflect on the organisation’s history and to look creatively toward the future. Following on to the January event, the Nuffic annual conference will convene on 13 March and will advance the organisation’s plan to dedicate the whole of 2012 to “exploring opportunities for international cooperation in higher education”.

From a modest beginning in 1952, Nuffic has grown today into a premier national agency for internationalisation of higher education. Amongst other things, its portfolio of activities includes the administration of programmes for international scholarships and institutional cooperation, the promotion of Dutch higher education abroad, the evaluation of foreign credentials, and the development and delivery of policy-driven research. In keeping with its commitment to produce top-quality research, January also saw the publication of a new Nuffic report, Changing Flows in International Student Mobility. This publication explores in-depth “strategies and tendencies in the craft of international student recruitment” with an eye on discovering what different countries are doing in this area and what the Netherlands can learn from these approaches. Specifically, the report looks at the strategic policies in ten major recruiting countries with which the Netherlands competes for top-notch international students. It also examines developments in 14 prospective and existing recruitment countries, ranging from Russia to Egypt, Chile to Vietnam.

Nuffic was a founding member of ACA nearly 20 years ago and has long been a dynamic presence in European and global higher education circles. We congratulate Nuffic on reaching this significant milestone and look forward to many more years of outstanding contributions to the field by our Dutch colleagues. Happy birthday, Nuffic!

Nuffic – 60th anniversary announcement

Nuffic - Changing Flows in International Student Mobility report