International engineering students still welcome in the Netherlands

Days before Christmas, De Volkskrant published an article titled “Minister requests universities to stop recruiting international students.” Alarmed, I kept reading. Hidden in the text I found some relief: “limited and targeted recruitment would still be allowed” for engineering studies.

As a professor in electrical engineering, I may not be the best communicator, but even I know that most readers will only pay attention to the headline. Indeed, my international network quickly picked up on this. They felt like a door was slammed in their faces. They felt the Netherlands had changed. And not for the better.