Switch to full Dutch-language education comes at a cost of prosperity
A switch to full Dutch-language education would shrink the university sector by 8.6 per cent. This is according to research by Groningen scientists. Incidentally, the Dutch government does not want a complete switch to Dutch-language higher education, but mainly wants to put a check on the advancing Englishification.
Besides a shrinking university sector, gross domestic product would also fall by 1.1 to 1.6 per cent. This would be partly because the best scientists will leave the Netherlands. This is according to the study The Cost of Nativism. Evidence from the Netherlands which has not yet been peer reviewed and has appeared as such in the research database Social Science Research Network.
Internationalization in Balance Act
The government - including the previous one - has been working for some time on reducing English-language higher education and thus the number of international students in higher education. This led, among other things, to previous minister Robbert Dijkgraaf (D66) sending the Internationalization in Balance Act to the House of Representatives. The current government has adopted the law, but there is a lot of resistance to it, including at the UvA. As recently as April, the UvA Executive Board let it be known that it finds the whole law a joke, also because there will be extensive testing rounds to determine whether there is a need for such education. The law has not yet passed the House and then has to go to the Senate.
The researchers found out about their findings by conducting a representative experiment in which they presented study options to 900 students from the Netherlands and abroad (EU and non-EU) that differed in language (Dutch or English), price and location. By analyzing which options were chosen, the researchers were able to deduce how much students value English-language or Dutch-language education. They also drew on previous research on scholar productivity.
Neutral
The study showed that, on average, Dutch students were neutral towards the language of instruction in education. They were not willing to pay extra for English-language education, but neither were they willing to pay for education in Dutch. Policymakers often cry out that Dutch students want college in Dutch, but this does not seem to be the case.
However, among Dutch students there does appear to be a link between life views and language preference: young people with a more universal view of society do attach importance to English, as do Dutch students who believe that English-language education is good for their careers. The same was true for people who believed more strongly that English is useful for their careers.
Based on these results, the researchers calculated what would happen if the Netherlands switched to full Dutch-language education. In that case, 86 per cent of international students would no longer choose the Netherlands. This would lead to an 8.6 per cent shrinkage of the university sector.
