Samenvatting

Internationalization in higher education has been a substantial and impactful phenomenon, which has proven to be of high value to both the Dutch society and the global community as a whole. With the heightened tendency of bachelor and master degree-seeking students opting to enroll to study programs offered beyond the borders of their country of origin, The Hague University of Applied Sciences has seemed to successfully capitalize on this trend by attracting international students to its wide range of fully English-taught study programs. Although, in the light of recent developments, the Government of The Netherlands has voiced concerns with respect to the ever accelerating incoming student traffic, whilst suspecting that the flow of international students could potentially put a strain on the financing, quality and accessibility of Dutch higher education. In efforts to re-impose balance in internationalization, the Dutch government aims to put forward a Language and Accessibility Bill to the House of Representatives, which encompasses a series of measures designed to safeguard the quality of the Dutch higher education system. Thus, the central question of this research focuses on how the Language and Accessibility Bill affects internationalization within The Hague University of Applied Sciences. To map out the central inquiry of this dissertation, further sub-questions are introduced to explore the definitions of internationalization in higher education and its areas of application, what is the role of internationalization within THUAS, how the bill shall impact its Dutch and international students. Lastly, the research dives into the strategies that should THUAS implement in order to mitigate the potential repercussions of the proposed public policy on the rebalancing of internationalization. Through the collection of mainly quantitative data derived from both primary and secondary (academic) sources, as well as qualitative data obtained from a conducted interview, the selected methodology of desk research proves to be effective in forming a response to the identified central problem, stipulating that the Language and Accessibility Bill increases the accessibility of Dutch students to the higher education system, but hinders the entry of international students to study programs across Dutch institutions of higher education.