In the Netherlands where some say they pay 100 million Euros pays to EU students the government starts a research about the costs and profits. The University of Maastricht has done already such a research. It says that an international student delivers a profit of 32.000 euro, due to indirectional economic value such as living, shopping and friends and family visits. But researchers are afraid such an analysis on national level will show a more negative image, which will be reason to cut down investments in international students, although we are just starting.

Henriëtte Maassen van den Brink, is co-initiative taker of TIER, Top Institute for Evidence Based Education Research and professor of Economics of Education at the University of Amsterdam and University of Maastricht.

On the ground of their research and present challenges she pleas for demand side financing in higher education. The current small countries who are receiving more international students then that they send face increasing pressure on their budgets. From studies like economics 50 to 60% of the Students is from Germany at the University of Maastricht. “This can’t be hold for much longer. But we have to be careful not to blame these students”. Although she welcomes a sharper eye for the costs and benefits of educational regulations “we have to be careful with these. I think that the costs are much easier to quantify then the benefits. At the benefit side we have a diversity of civil, cultural and scientific benefits which are very difficult to transfer in money quantities. There is a lot of research needed to bring those benefits before the eye, unless you want to do heroic assumptions”. Questions for research she thinks of are: “If German students after finishing their grade who are going back to their country hold a feeling of relation with the Netherlands? How far they have a more positive image of the Netherlands. Do they speak the Dutch language a bit, do they keep contacts with Dutch people. Is their consumption pattern more Dutch?... It is difficult research but such questions are relevant to research if they are not only a costing item, but also contribute to the trade relations between these countries, as is the claim of higher education institutions who are receiving German students”.

The solution as proposed by Austria is an option, but it costs a lot of administration efforts and thus costs. The real solution is much simpler. Let students pay everywhere costing effective college costs, and give the grant which is now going to higher education institutions to the student. If students study abroad, they take their grants with them. With that you get another extra for free. Because students who pay 10.000 euro pro year demand higher quality of education. “If you pay for something, you demand quality. If you get something for free, you don’t value it. That’s also the problem with the German higher education, where college grants are diminished. That leads to crowding. Students at the border therefore chose for education of more quality in the Netherlands, although they have to pay here”.

Problems with accessibility can be solved with a system of grants, which could be supported by European Structure investments regulations. But students may invest themselves also more, according to Maassen van den Brink. “Every year higher education rises your income of your career with 6 to 8 %. So this 10.000 euro is easy earned back in the future. This is progression of income is the result of hundreds of researches”. There is also another argument for this direction, “because why should we let people with lower income pay taxes for people to get higher education, if the benefits of this are for these higher educated students? This argument is the same for international situations. Why should a low educated Polish employee pay for the education of a Dutch transfer student in their country?”

We have to discuss this and soon. “We have to prevent that we close our boundaries. That is totally contrary to innovation, globalization and economic development. Higher fees of higher education leads also to more competition, with as a result more differentiation and variety. And that increases the possibilities for students. And individual freedom of choice leads to prosperity. That’s lesson 1 of economy”.  

Quotes from Transfer, Dutch magazine on internationalization in higher education November 2011.