NETHERLANDS: 'Halve foreign students', right says

A right-wing political party has called for the number of foreign students allowed into The Netherlands to be halved, to ease a shortage of student housing.

The country has a long-standing housing shortage and, last week, a government plan to build 16,000 new rooms to address the current shortage of 30,000 rooms for students was presented to the House of Representatives.

The shortfall has led to foreign students being housed in bungalow parks built for holidaying families.

Eric Lucassen, a representative for the Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV) or Freedom Party, which tolerates but is not part of the two-party minority government, said the plan for 16,000 rooms was not enough to solve the problem.

"More than 80,000 foreign students study in The Netherlands. Only 40,000 Dutch students study abroad. That's the real problem. There should be a balance between students leaving and coming into our country. Therefore we should give half of the current number of foreign students access to our higher education. That will solve the housing problem."

Piet Hein Donner, the minister of interior and kingdom relations, said foreign and Dutch students should be treated equally. He also emphasised that the market for accommodation for Dutch and international students is different: foreign students require short-term furnished rooms while Dutch students want long-term non-furnished rooms.

Allan Päll, chair of the European Students Union, said: "If the Dutch want to put restrictions on foreign students, other countries should do the same for Dutch students."

Pascal ten Have, chairman of LSVB, the Dutch National Union of Students, added: "Foreign students are very important for the Dutch economy. They are especially needed in fields such as microelectronics and biochemistry."

The scarcity of student housing has been a major issue in the Netherlands. At most universities, international students are guaranteed a furnished room. However universities often do not have rooms available in September, often when international students due to leave stay longer. Therefore new students are housed temporarily in a caravan or hostel.

In the past two years the University of Wageningen has temporarily housed foreign students for months at a holiday bungalow park, 40 minutes' bus ride from the university. A survey held last year showed that 84% felt staying at the bungalow park negatively influenced their studies.

They complained that it was awkward to live among holiday families and inappropriate to live so far away from the university and its city, where they had chosen to live.

"We receive a lot of complaints from foreign students about their housing," said Ten Have. "They are our guests and universities should treat them a lot better. This damages the reputation of The Netherlands."

He also cited the problem of a number of students in Rotterdam who were sleeping in one room. "They still had to pay about EUR300 (US$400) a month rent. But they did not receive the service the university had promised."

Päll said universities should be open and clear about their housing problems. "It is important that they communicate the housing problems to the foreign students beforehand. Students have the right to know that they could temporarily end up in a dorm or a bungalow park. Students do not only go to foreign universities in order to learn. They also want to have a student experience."

Some universities, like Delft University of Technology, have chosen to give only a fixed number of foreign students a guarantee of a room. Other students are admitted but have to find their own accommodation.

"I think that is a good approach," said Ten Have. "Students know what to expect. But I think there is only one good solution: build more student housing: 16,000 new rooms is a good start, but we need more rooms for students in the Netherlands."

* The government sent its own discouraging signal to international students last week when Halbe Zijlstra, the junior education minister, told the House of Representatives that English should only be used in lectures if the subject "requires teaching in English". Otherwise it was not beneficial to "pour an English sauce" over the lesson, he said according to Dutch News.nl.