The number of international students at Dutch universities is set to grow by around 10% this year, following a steep drop at the start of the pandemic.

The immigration service IND said it had received 15,110 study visa applications from students outside the EU by the end of July, compared to 12,310 in the whole of 2020, as numbers declined by 40%.

The increase is partly the result of British students swelling the ranks of non-EU students in the wake of Brexit, according to a report by international education organisation Nuffic.

The largest numbers of applications came from China, India, the USA, Turkey and Indonesia, while the most popular subject for international students was economics and business, followed by social sciences, engineering, and arts and culture.

One in four students at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) comes from outside the Netherlands, while around 22% at Delft University of Technology are internationals.

‘The Netherlands is not an island,’ Pieter Duisenberg, chair of the Dutch universities’ association VSNU told AD. ‘Last year was relatively quiet because of the coronavirus restrictions, so it’s not surprising that the numbers are rising again now.

‘There is a worldwide trend of students searching for good quality higher education for relatively little cost.’