Limited enrollment courses at Dutch universities massively popular

The Dutch university and college courses with limited space received more than twice as many applications than they have space. The limited enrollment courses at Dutch tertiary education institutions have space for about 20 thousand students. They've received almost 47 thousand applications, the Telegraaf reports. 

The International Business Administration course at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam is the most popular course. The course has 575 spots available, and received 2,300 applications. Most of these applications came from abroad. Only about 350 Dutch students enrolled for this English language course. 

At HBO level the Fashion and Textile Technologies course at Hogeschool van Amsterdam is the most popular, with 1,290 applications for 410 spots. TU Delft's Aerospace Engineering course also received many applications. 

Medical courses at all universities across the Netherlands also remain popular. A total of 8,404 students applied for one of the 2,785 spots available throughout the country. 

"It is unfortunate that many students will not be able to study what they want", Desley van der Zande of student organization ISO said to NOS. "I would like to challenge the institutions to see if they can permit more students."

The Netherlands abolished its central draw for limited enrollment courses this year. From now on Dutch universities and colleges can self select students for their courses. This means they can look at more than only the applying students' school results and include things like the student's motivation and personality when making a selection.