netherlandsvisaspolicy
Netherlands drops WIB language test, keeps 16,766 cap
On 15 July 2026, the Dutch education minister and the two national higher-education associations — Universiteiten van Nederland and the Vereniging Hogescholen — signed an administrative agreement on international student numbers. It drops the previous cabinet’s plan to force a mandatory language test on English-taught programmes, in exchange for the sector keeping its own self-imposed cap on new international bachelor’s students. The underlying law is being amended, not withdrawn.
What changed
- The minister and the sector agreed to remove the “Toets Anderstalig Onderwijs” (TAO) — a planned test institutions would otherwise have had to pass to keep teaching bachelor’s programmes in a language other than Dutch — from the Internationalisation in Balance Act (WIB).
- In its place, institutions keep the self-regulation approach they had already proposed: a combined cap of 16,766 new international bachelor’s students a year, which the agreement notes is around 11% below the 2022 peak.
- Institutions committed to steering recruitment toward regions with shrinking populations and sectors with labour shortages — engineering, healthcare and education are named — and to limiting enrolment on non-Dutch-taught tracks “where necessary.”
- The agreement also commits institutions to more Dutch-language support for international students, better tracking of graduate retention in the Dutch labour market, and discouraging students from arriving without secured housing.
- Separately, the cabinet is funding a €154 million “talent strategy” aimed at attracting international talent in shortage sectors — this is additional funding, not a reversal of the intake cap.
- The agreement will be reviewed annually, with the first review due in February 2027. The amended WIB itself is expected to go back to parliament after the summer.
Who it affects
- Prospective international bachelor’s applicants to Dutch universities and universities of applied sciences, particularly in oversubscribed subjects or regions.
- Applicants to English-taught bachelor’s tracks, some of which may still face lower intake numbers even where a parallel Dutch-taught track is unaffected.
- Applicants to programmes in shortage sectors (engineering, healthcare, education) or shrinking regions, where recruitment is now meant to be actively encouraged rather than restricted.
- Anyone weighing long-term certainty when choosing where to study: the WIB is still being amended, so specific mechanisms could change again once it returns to parliament.
What you should do
- Don’t assume the debate over English-taught bachelor’s programmes is settled. The national numbers cap and track-specific limits remain in place even though the language test has been dropped. Check your target programme’s own admissions page for the conditions that apply to your intake year.
- Take the agreement’s housing commitment seriously — see our accommodation guide before applying, and don’t accept a place without a realistic housing plan.
- Watch your target institution’s own communications for how it plans to allocate its share of the national cap; individual institution targets are not yet published in detail.
- For current admission and visa mechanics, start with our Netherlands visas guide and institutes directory.
What hasn’t changed
The WIB has not been withdrawn — it is being amended to remove the TAO before returning to parliament. Existing English-taught programmes are not being forced to close, and the broader approach of managing, rather than banning, international enrolment continues under the new coalition.