Universities of applied sciences will impose stricter enrollment requirements for students from outside the European Union. They have strong indications that student visas are widely abused for illegal migration to the Netherlands. This is shown by research by NRC to the phenomenon of ‘disappearing students’ – young people from countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, India and Nigeria who register for a Dutch university of applied sciences in order to obtain a student visa, and then disappear into illegality.
Businesses in Dhaka
Saxion University of Applied Sciences also suffered from ‘disappearance students’ from Nepal and Bangladesh in 2017. Several universities of applied sciences are currently stating that they are struggling with this. How many students come to the Netherlands in this way is not registered. It is clear, however, that universities of applied sciences have seen the numbers of applications from these high-risk countries rise sharply in recent years, sometimes reaching hundreds per institution per year. They now reject most of them.
Last year there were mainly problems with Bangladesh. In 2021, Immigration Service IND received “signals about students in higher education dropping out early, especially from Bangladesh,” a spokesperson said.
Read the background story about it here colleges and student visas
The number of Bangladeshi students at higher education institutions has almost quadrupled in recent years, according to figures from the Ministry of Education – from 110 in 2018 to 399 last year. Dozens of companies and consultants are located in the capital Dhaka that advise young people and help them apply for student visas.
The IND is conducting additional research into Bangladeshi students in the Netherlands, because the service suspects that many have discontinued their studies and are now working as self-employed persons. According to the IND spokesperson, students from Bangladesh have “registered in relatively large numbers as self-employed with a sole proprietorship”. The service also examines the way in which higher professional education institutions ‘assess whether a student meets the conditions under immigration law’.
Weaknesses in the system
The extra checks on registrations from high-risk countries make great demands on the capacity of the universities of applied sciences. Applications must be assessed one by one and rejected with reasons. The Association of Universities of Applied Sciences suspects the intervention of people smugglers, who seem to shop between different HBO institutions, says internationalization coordinator Arnaud Stadermann. “It seems like they are looking for weaknesses in the system. Then one school suddenly receives fifty almost identical registrations from a certain country, the next time they try a different program.”
The association is therefore working on a guideline for all 36 affiliated higher professional education institutions. This states, among other things, that students from Bangladesh and other risk countries must transfer the full tuition fees prior to the academic year, that they must prove that they have enough money to stay in the Netherlands and that they must convince the institutions of their study plans via (digital) intake interviews.
There is intensive contact with the Ministry of Education about the directive, since “accessibility is one of the starting points of our education system,” says a spokesperson. Colleges are not allowed to judge students more strictly on the basis of their nationality alone, because this is discrimination.
Various universities of applied sciences recognize the problems with disappearing students. Last year, 94 students from Bangladesh reported to InHolland, a spokesperson said. Of these, 19 were eventually admitted. Four of them have since stopped their studies.
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In order to prevent abuse, InHolland will ask students from risk countries outside the EU from this year “to pay the full amount of tuition fees, living allowance and parties for the IND and health insurance prior to the application for a residence permit”, according to the spokesperson. “The other non-EU nationalities still follow the ‘old’ route and can pay later.”
Saxion University of Applied Sciences now uses a similar system. Part of this is that students from outside the EU must register earlier than other students.
Dozens of applications from Bangladesh page 9
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of September 2, 2022