More and more international students continue to work in the Netherlands after their studies, reports the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Of the international students who graduated in the 2018-2019 academic year, 32% got a job in the Netherlands after a year. In previous years, this percentage was about 20 percent.

Many international students, especially those with a diploma in services, computer science, education or technology, find a job in the Netherlands within a year after graduation. Students of management sciences, business, human resources or psychology often leave again. Less than a third of this group works in the Netherlands after a year.

There may be an impact of Corona on the numbers because the epidemic broke out in the year of the research, but according to Statistics Netherlands, that cannot be said yet. Overall, according to outgoing Education Minister Dijkgraaf, these figures are good news, because international graduates contribute to the Dutch knowledge economy.

“We desperately need that international talent, especially in sectors that are in short supply like technology and IT,” says Dijkgraaf. “The CBS research also shows that a relatively large number of students go on to work in those sectors.”

However, the Minister would like to see a higher proportion of international students staying in the Netherlands. “The ability to get a job is one of the factors that increases the chance of survival for international graduates,” says Dijkgraaf. “I want to increase the chance of survival by strengthening international students’ connections with the Netherlands.”

He wants to do this, among other things, by taking more lessons in Dutch. The idea is that this will make education less attractive for international students who do not speak the language. If they learn the language, they are more likely to stay in the Netherlands after their studies.

Meanwhile, the increasing number of international students has been causing problems for some time. Lecture halls are crowded, the workload of teachers is high, and there is very little living space for both international and Dutch students.

This is one of the reasons why more and more Dutch students are staying at home longer. Last year there were 23,700 very few rooms. This is possible depending on Researcher Kinesis It rises to about 57,000 rooms in 2030-2031.

For these reasons, Dijkgraaf said earlier this year that he wanted to slow down the arrival of international students, although this was a difficult task. Within the European Union, students have the right to study anywhere. The Netherlands cannot simply deny students from the EU a course.

China’s Yibing Wang is one of the students who decided to stay. She now works here as a graphic designer. She says it was the high level of English and the friendly and helpful people that brought her to the Netherlands.

“Sometimes we say that the Dutch are like coconuts: hard on the outside and soft on the inside,” Yiping says. She particularly admires the administration of government. “It’s well organized here.”

After her studies, Yiping applied for a “research year” visa, which allows non-EU students to search for a job for a year. According to her, it was stressful because she received little help.

She now has a job and has no plans to return to China. “The work culture there is not good for women, and there is a lot of age discrimination,” she says. “Here you can even joke with your boss.”