Based on the contents of the bill, many English-language Bachelor's programmes could disappear, adversely impacting the quality and diversity of Dutch higher education. To prevent this, all universities in the Netherlands have come together through the umbrella organisation UNL (Universities of the Netherlands) to proactively offer a joint alternative proposal on how the inflow of international students can better be balanced.

The goal of the proposal is to avoid the determining test ‘Toets Anderstalig Onderwijs - TAO’ (in English: Foreign Language Education Test) for all Bachelor’s programmes. The joint alternative proposal of the UNL offers measures of self-regulation by the universities instead. These measures include, for example, that some English-taught study programmes will add tracks offered in Dutch. Also, the universities offer to change the language of instruction of selected Bachelor programmes from English to Dutch (e.g. Psychology Bachelor’s programmes in Amsterdam). The objective is to reduce the overall intake of international students in Dutch study programmes and enhance accessibility of Bachelor programmes to Dutch students.

Read more about the proposed plans on the UvA websites:

Impact on AUC

AUC is a study programme of the UvA and VU. Both universities are part of the UNL and have agreed to the alternative proposal. Changing AUC's English-taught Bachelor is not part of the current proposal, which means that the UNL proposal for self-regulation will have no short-term impact on how we operate. If the proposal results in removal of the Toets Anderstalig Onderwijs (TAO) from the measures to curb internationalisation, this will be positive for AUC, since it would remove the requirement to meet very strict criteria for English-taught Bachelor programmes.

The UNL proposal also contains additional measures that can further stimulate AUC's ongoing efforts to foster staff and students’ contributions to Dutch society. These include, for instance, measures to enhance Dutch language skills, which helps improve access to Dutch Master's and graduate programmes, and measures that help students prepare to enter the Dutch labour market more easily.

More information

If you would like to read more about the proposal, we recommend checking the FAQs of the UvA.

While much is still unknown, the first step will be the UNL officially presenting their proposal to the Minister of Education before the Balanced Internationalisation Bill is discussed in the House of Representatives. We will keep you on updated if there is any progress or important developments.