Figures for student visa applications for the Netherlands, released at the end of August, are believed to be around 50 per cent down on last year, according to an Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) press release.
This summer’s 8,000 applications were such a small number that IND staff normally brought in for the summer student surge were deployed elsewhere. The University of Twente told Dutch News they were seeing last-minute applications, and were expecting more up to the start of the academic year in late September.
Jacqueline Neumann, of IND’s Business Team, speculated that international students had either gone “elsewhere,” can’t travel, can’t apply for a visa (as some Dutch consulates are closed), or have deferred entry and will turn up later in the year.
Final numbers are not yet available, a Ministry of Justice press officer told the Gazette that new figures for student visa applications are published in November.
