Netherlands moves to cut international student numbers with the Balanced Internationalisation Act
By Muntasir • Published May 08, 2026 • Updated Sep 20, 2026 • Study Abroad, Study in Europe, Education News & Policy
The Netherlands is cutting international student numbers through the Balanced Internationalisation Act. The bill lets universities cap non-EU student places, pushes bachelor's programs back toward Dutch, and comes with steep funding cuts tied to international enrollment.
📩 Bill name: Wet internationalisering in balans (WIB)
🎓 Bachelor's programs must teach mostly in Dutch
💶 168 million euros in cuts tied to international student numbers
⏱️ Universities already cutting intake ahead of final passage
What the WIB bill does
The Dutch government submitted the Wet internationalisering in balans, known as the WIB or Balanced Internationalisation Act, to parliament in May 2024. The bill aims to manage the scale of international student numbers after years of fast growth in English-taught programs, while keeping the country open to students in fields facing labor shortages such as engineering and healthcare.
The bill gives universities and universities of applied sciences new tools: language rules for teaching, caps on student numbers by program, and temporary caps for programs that see a sudden surge in applications. Details continue to move through the Dutch Senate as of 2026, with universities already adjusting ahead of a final vote.
The Dutch-language rule
Under the bill, a course counts as foreign-language taught if more than a third of its study credits use a language other than Dutch. Bachelor's programs face a requirement to teach the majority of their curriculum in Dutch, with English tracks needing separate justification through a new assessment process.
Universities in border regions and areas with declining populations get more flexibility to keep bilingual tracks, since these regions rely more on international students to fill local labor gaps.
Caps on non-EU student places
The bill lets institutions set a maximum number of places for students from outside the European Economic Area when teaching capacity runs short, alongside program-level numerus fixus that used to apply only to whole degrees. It also allows one-year temporary caps for programs facing an unexpected spike in applications, covering bachelor's, associate, and master's programs alike.
Dutch universities report they already plan to enroll about 2,000 fewer international bachelor's students than the 2022-23 peak of close to 19,000, ahead of the bill's final passage.
The funding cuts
The bill sits inside a wider higher education budget that cuts more than 500 million euros in total, with 168 million euros of that specifically tied to reducing international student numbers, according to reporting on the government's budget agreement . The government later reversed 125 million euros of related cuts for institutions in Limburg, Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, and Zeeland, regions where universities argued the losses would hit local economies hardest.
Cuts tied to the bill take effect from 2026 under the current budget agreement.
What this means if you are applying
🎓 Check whether your target program is shifting from English to Dutch teaching before you apply
📩 Confirm the program still runs an English track for your intake year directly with the admissions office
⏱️ Apply early, since capped programs fill faster once numerus fixus limits apply
Programs in fields with recognized labor shortages, including many engineering and healthcare degrees, face less pressure to cut English-taught places than programs in business and social sciences.