Dutch first in Dutch higher education policy

Abstract

In the past 15 years, the number of international students in tertiary education doubled to reach 5.6 million students in 2018 and is expected to grow to 6.9 million in 2030 (Choudaha and Van Rest, 2018). In the Netherlands, the percentage of international degree seeking students is relatively high and growing fast from 4% in 2010 to more than 10% in 2017 where the average in OECD countries was 6% (OECD, 2020). Initially, this growth was perceived as positive, seen as a sign of good quality of Dutch higher education, and it was stimulated by government policy. However in the past few years, this development has led to a public debate on the downsides of this growth; the accessibility- and the quality of higher education (IBO, 2019). The latter being impacted by increased pressure on HEI because of growing student numbers. The use of the English language is also part of the discussion on quality. The debate eventually resulted in a policy proposal called Taal en Toegankelijkheid which translates into Language and Accessibility that was sent to the House of Representatives by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) in September 2019 (Van Engelshoven, 2019b). The aim of the bill is to safeguard the quality of education, promote Dutch language skills, to guarantee accessibility of higher education and to control the influx of international students in the Netherlands (Van Engelshoven, 2019a). Before the bill was approved by the Senate, the Dutch Cabinet stepped out of power in January 2021 and the bill was declared controversial which means no decision will be made until a new Cabinet is installed (Bikker, 2021). Using the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF), this paper unravels the agenda-setting process that has led to the aforementioned government policy proposal.