Some years ago the UvA therefore made a plea with the Minister for making available instruments (such as caps on English-taught tracks) that would allow us to strike a good balance between Dutch and international students.  In 2025 the universities collectively agreed to introduce self-regulation measures to rebalance the inflow of students- in English-taught bachelor programmes and tracks. These measures are now being anchored through administrative agreements with the minister. 

Administrative agreements with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science 

In the administrative agreements the UvA – together with the other universities – committed to decreasing the inflow of international Bachelor’s students. For the UvA this involves a 20% decrease in international inflow compared to the peak year 2022–2023. It concerns a university-wide decrease that will be mainly affecting the domains of the social sciences and humanities. 

For some universities the forecasts on admissions show a rather substantive decline in the influx of international students, this is not the case for a number of UvA faculties. Initial results of the self-regulation measures to rebalance the inflow of international students are underway, as in recent years the inflow in our English-taught Bachelor’s programmes showed a steady decrease. 

Numerus fixus on English-language programmes and tracks as an instrument

An important starting point for the UvA is that we prefer managing student numbers at institutional level targeting specific study programmes or tracks, over new national legislation. English-language tracks for the Bachelor’s programmes have been in place at the UvA  prior to the establishment of self-regulation measures aimed at rebalancing internationalisation. We therefore reiterate the UvA's commitment to the self-regulation measures, now within the framework of the administrative agreements with the ministry.

At the UvA numerus fixus arrangements (caps) were already in place for English-language tracks in Economics and Business Economics, Business Administration and the English-language track in Psychology. In recent years this has led to a decrease in the inflow of international students. 

For the academic year 2027–2028, in line with the national agreements, the following new and adjusted numerus fixus arrangements will be implemented for the non-Dutch-language tracks of the Political Science, Business Administration and Psychology programmes. These steps are in line with the approach previously initiated by the universities: rebalancing international inflow through targeted measures and self-regulation, instead of generic and far-reaching measures such as the previously proposed Foreign-language Education Test (Toets Anderstalig Onderwijs, TAO).

Limited scale, visible effects

The measures will affect  programmes, staff and students in various faculties. We realise that this requires flexibility from our lecturers.

At the same time we want to avoid a situation, in which national generic measures will be imposed on our university. Such measures would most likely limit our institutional autonomy in implementing   our vision on teaching and learning.  By anchoring the self-regulation measures, the universities will remain in the driver's seat and in doing so, preserve the sustainability over their teaching portfolios. 

Next steps 

In the period ahead faculties and programmes will detail the effects of the self-regulation measures in the context of the curricula and for day-to-day teaching practice. 

More opportunities to learn Dutch for international students and staff 

In addition to rebalancing the influx of international students , the UvA is also investing – in line with a recent proposal of the Central Student Council – in Dutch  language skills of international students. In this way non-Dutch speaking students can prepare for a future in the Netherlands in which they deploy  their academic knowledge to help finding solutions to social challenges. 

Following Dutch language courses helps them to make contact more easily with Dutch-speaking fellow students, and increases their employability in the Netherlands after graduation. 

Read more about the Balanced Internationalisation Act (WIB)