higher education

Multiple Dutch universities are calling their exchange students back from Hong Kong, due to the increasing tensions in the city. The Dutch educational institutions decided to make an active effort to facilitate their exchange students' return to the Netherlands, as a precaution, NU.nl reports.

The University of Amsterdam, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Utrecht University, Leiden University, and TU Delft all confirmed to the newspaper that they are facilitating the return of their students. Radboud University Nijmegen said the same to the Telegraaf.  

Wageningen University & Research is the best university in the Netherlands, according to the top 200 global universities ranking by Times Higher Education. The Netherlands has 11 universities in the top 200, and 7 in the top 100. The University of Twente dropped out of the ranking this year. 

A four-year degree at a Dutch university or college costs an average of around 50 thousand euros, according to the most recent figures by Nibud. That amounts to around 12 thousand euros a year, or a thousand euros a month, AD reports.

The way in which money is distributed among universities and technical universities in the Netherlands needs to change, according to a new report. More money needs to go to technical courses, so they can keep up with the growing demand. And universities should be less dependent on student numbers for their money, the committee concluded.

New students to Dutch universities and universities of applied sciences will pay only half their tuition from the next academic year. The Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate, approved cutting the tuition fees in half for first year students. Students starting teacher training will pay half tuition in their first two years of study, ANP reports.

The police broke up a student protest at the University of Amsterdam on Friday night. According to the students, the police used batons, pepper spray and police dogs on them and several students sustained injuries. GroenLinks parliamentarian Zihni Ozdil wants an explanation from Education Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven, Het Parool reports. 

Association Beter Onderwijs Nederland (BON) is filing a lawsuit against the University of Twente, Maastricht University, and the Inspectorate for Education in an effort to halt higher education in the Netherlands turning increasingly English, ANP reports.

According to BON, "the care of Dutch language and culture is a core task for higher education". The association believes that switching to teaching in English is contrary to the law. "Dutch threatens to become a kind of provincial language", BON chairman Ad Verbrugge said.

For the second year in a row, the Netherlands has the most competitive economy in the European Union, and the fourth most competitive economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). The Netherlands scored particularly well because of its strong base in, for example, infrastructure and macroeconomic policy, said Erasmus University - the WEF partner organization in the Netherlands, NU.nl reports. 

The national student loan debt is at its highest level ever, according to figures from education organization DUO. In total students and former students currently owe 17.6 billion euros to the state, compared to 12 billion euros five years ago, the Telegraaf reports.

On Wednesday student organization ISO launched a National Study Debt Meter to keep track of the increasing study debt. "The projected increase for the coming year is about 55 euros per second", ISO president Jan Sinnige said to the newspaper.

A record number of about 265 thousand students were registered at Dutch universities this past academic year. That is a 2.5 percent increase compared to the previous year, according to the association of Dutch universities VSNU, ANP reports.

There was a hefty influx of foreign students as well as students transferring from VWO. The number of first year students in university courses increased by 9 percent to 52 thousand this academic year. The number of first-year undergraduate students increased in all sectors of education.

An increasing number of students are in need of psychological help, but student psychologists are scarce at a number of higher education institutions, according to a study into the avilability and accessibility of student psychologists in higher education. The study was performed by student organization ISO and the Dutch institute for psychologists NIP, Metro reports.