Dutch universities teach in English. It’s making them too popular.

For Regina Huang, transporting her life from China to the Netherlands for an anthropology degree was a no-brainer.

Many Dutch university classes are taught in English, Amsterdam is one of Europe’s most international cities, and the study of anthropology thrives on a diversity of cultures. “And there are quite a lot of [nongovernmental organizations] and consultancies here that are open and value the work of anthropologists,” says Ms. Huang, who is studying for her master’s degree at the University of Amsterdam.

Yet a controversial new education proposal threatens to effectively roll up the Netherlands’ welcome mat.

It would require universities to teach more classes in Dutch and allow certain enrollment caps, thus effectively shrinking the number of students coming in from outside the Netherlands. Education Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf referred to the dire need to address the “unchecked pace of internationalization, both in education, and more broadly, in the workplace and the community.”

This proposal has everyone from foreign professors to international students rethinking their futures in the Netherlands.

“It’s a bit sad,” says Ms. Huang. “With my study background, I’m all for cultural diversity and intercultural communication, and it’s really helpful for people to understand differences between people. I do think this discourages people’s confidence to build a future after graduating here.”

Internationalization is becoming an ideological flashpoint as right-wing political groups gain influence across Europe, and in the Netherlands, international students have unfortunately become an easy target, say the proposal’s critics. But even universities are worried about being overwhelmed by quantities of international students beyond their ability to accommodate them – and are searching for ways to control their numbers.

Foreign students now make up 40% of all incoming university students in the Netherlands, and Dutch classrooms and student housing are overloaded, with spaces becoming less accessible to locals. So universities are trying to improve access for Dutch students to access their services without turning off the international spigot so central to the Netherlands’ reputation in a global economy.

“Our top universities are playing in the international field – it’s like a Champions League for soccer,” says Jeanet van der Laan, a member of the Dutch parliament. “We have to be connected. Our country thrives on development and innovation, and we have a lot of big international companies. We can’t be too radical in the decisions we make for the future of the Netherlands. We don’t want to be caught up in a conservative agenda to restrict international students because some parties don’t want migrants.”

Too many students, too little space

While the obvious solution to Dutch concerns about too many international students may seem to be simply to cap the numbers, there’s a reason that’s not being considered: It would violate European Union law. Under EU strictures, non-Dutch EU citizens must get the same treatment as Dutch citizens. Thus, they can’t be barred from enrolling in Dutch universities. While a bar could be applied to students from outside Europe, “most of the international students come from the rest of the EU. We cannot discriminate between them,” says Wouter van der Brug, a political scientist at the University of Amsterdam.

That legal framework is what prompted the government proposal’s focus on English and Dutch languages instead of student citizenship. And Dutch student Aziza Falal understands how the proposal comes off to non-Dutch.

“We’re not nationalistic, absolutely not,” says Ms. Falal, who advocates for students’ rights as chair of a university student union. “We want to be a knowledge economy because we like inclusivity and we like to have other people to learn from.”

But after watching countless students – both local and international – struggle to access university spots and secure housing from an increasingly scarce supply, Ms. Falal says she sees the merits of pressing the pause button. Some 115,000 international students are enrolled in Dutch higher education, a proportion that increased by almost 50% from a decade ago. That translates to roughly 4 of 10 incoming students hailing from outside the Netherlands.

To Ms. Falal, the education minister’s proposal is about ensuring that a system bursting at the seams has enough resources for all.

“There are a lot of people who are really happy with this proposal,” says Ms. Falal. “The capacity of Amsterdam is really too small to have all the international students, get them a good education, and house them. Maybe in five to 10 years, it will be different.”

Yet teaching classes in Dutch and restricting international student numbers would be a tough balance to strike at Eindhoven University of Technology. It’s located in a hub of the Netherlands’ high-tech sector, in the city that birthed Philips and DAF Trucks. All Eindhoven University classes are taught in English, and the school is a magnet for computer scientists and engineers from all over the world. What happens when English becomes limited on campus?

“I have to find some Dutch[-speaking] professors, which we don’t find ... anymore in artificial intelligence, electrical engineering, 5G, and 6G,” says Robert-Jan Smits, president of the executive board of Eindhoven University of Technology.

For Ali Hamdan, a political scientist who relocated from Los Angeles to the University of Amsterdam only last year, the proposal feels like whiplash, or a possible reversal of fortunes.

“The fact that the university is in entirely English was a huge draw, and for equally obvious reasons, it is very stressful to imagine the system changing in such a dramatic way,” says Dr. Hamdan, who points out that non-Dutch speakers would need additional time and resources to reach teaching proficiency in Dutch. “At Dutch universities, the teaching load is already a bit higher than research-intensive universities in the U.S. What this could do is incentivize people who really prioritize research to leave.”

And the Netherlands is in dire need of workers – especially university students willing to stay and enter the job market – as well as academics and workers of all skill levels. Just considering the tech sector, only 1 or 2 Dutch students out of 10 go into STEM fields, which would mean a tremendous shortage of talent for an economy that prides itself on being an innovation hub.

“The Dutch are facing, like most European countries, an enormous demographic decline,” says Dr. Smits. “If we’re not overtaking that with top-notch talent from abroad, then of course we have huge problems for the academic system, but also economy.”

Not about the right

It’s easy to view the proposal as a byproduct of the rightward political shift happening all over the world. The Netherlands’ fragile four-party coalition government collapsed this summer over migration policy, with new elections slated for the fall. Though the proposal is in a waiting period now, most analysts do expect it to pass in some form no matter what coalition is formed after elections.

“There is a very strong sentiment in parliament, especially among the more conservative parties, that we need to protect the Dutch language, Dutch culture, etc.,” says Dr. van der Brug, the political scientist.

But most university representatives agree that the unfettered influx of international students over the last few decades – driven by a host of push and pull factors such as skyrocketing U.S. college costs as well as the growing reputation of Dutch universities – need to be controlled somehow. Since the English-language curriculum became the norm at the University of Amsterdam, numbers have increased too rapidly for the university to adapt, says Dr. van der Brug. “You need lecture halls; you need facilities; you need staff. So we want to control the numbers. They have come up with something, but it’s not really what we asked for.”

Dr. van der Brug says limiting access to English-language tracks, while promoting Dutch-language courses and Dutch enrollment, is the best way to provide such control. But the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science isn’t allowing that, he says, and much else about the proposal is vague.

Overall, the danger is that the plan would result in unintended consequences.

“The Dutch always had a liberal, open country,” says Dr. Smits, the Eindhoven University board president. “It’s been a strength of the economy for centuries. The Portuguese Jews, when they were kicked out in the 17th century, came to the Dutch. The Huguenots, the Protestants when the French king kicked them out. The Flemish artists after the conquest of Antwerp. The Spaniards. They all came to Holland.

“Decoupling, to use a term of American politics, is a very bad idea because you are creating barriers,” Dr. Smits adds. “You are creating distances between countries, which is extremely dangerous in the long run, that there is no mutual understanding anymore, no exposure to each other’s cultures. We are creating walls again, and that’s not good for peace on this planet.”