Income and performance of Dutch universities
Photo: Arie Kievit/Hollandse Hoogte

In short
- Number of diplomas is rising, but the revenues are rising more sharply.
- Revenue is increasing faster at technical universities than at other universities.
Dutch universities receive money for education in various ways, for example via the state contribution and via tuition fees. The two figures below compare the income and the number of diplomas in 2010 with those of subsequent years. The first figure relates to all universities together. The second figure highlights the four technical universities.
Government contribution for education + tuition fees | Government contribution | Government contribution education component | Bachelor's degrees | Master's degrees | |
2010 | 0,00% | 0,00% | 0,00% | 0,00% | 0,00% |
2011 | 1,59% | 1,89% | 0,66% | 12,78% | 9,97% |
2012 | 4,50% | 2,38% | 2,26% | 32,08% | 23,99% |
2013 | 8,96% | 4,55% | 7,15% | 22,20% | 9,27% |
2014 | 12,41% | 4,60% | 9,78% | 21,23% | 13,85% |
2015 | 16,26% | 6,32% | 11,98% | 28,73% | 20,39% |
2016 | 20,19% | 8,39% | 15,12% | 27,17% | 22,34% |
2017 | 25,06% | 10,53% | 18,95% | 29,94% | 33,07% |
2018 | 37,62% | 15,16% | 33,21% | 36,63% | 38,82% |
2019 | 38,36% | 19,26% | 33,45% | 41,81% | 41,00% |
2020 | 57,23% | 22,59% | 54,82% | 60,45% | 59,05% |
2021 | 59,52% | 34,27% | 61,08% | 56,35% | 57,93% |
2022 | 66,02% | 42,43% | 72,46% | 70,92% | 63,40% |
Government contribution education + tuition fees | Government contribution | Government contribution education component | Bachelor's degrees | Master's degrees | |
2010 | 0,00% | 0,00% | 0,00% | 0,00% | 0,00% |
2011 | 6,83% | 2,54% | 7,26% | 24,19% | 3,97% |
2012 | 8,19% | 1,73% | 6,56% | 58,66% | 21,21% |
2013 | 14,63% | 5,67% | 12,08% | 39,56% | 14,30% |
2014 | 20,93% | 2,98% | 17,36% | 41,86% | 23,16% |
2015 | 26,16% | 4,74% | 19,38% | 59,32% | 31,99% |
2016 | 32,61% | 8,49% | 23,25% | 48,15% | 43,18% |
2017 | 41,21% | 9,79% | 29,99% | 70,71% | 65,54% |
2018 | 73,93% | 15,01% | 69,16% | 84,51% | 73,96% |
2019 | 63,99% | 22,69% | 55,77% | 91,64% | 73,61% |
2020 | 70,13% | 26,57% | 61,71% | 109,05% | 100,25% |
2021 | 87,07% | 36,87% | 87,40% | 98,34% | 88,11% |
2022 | 99,77% | 47,09% | 107,24% | 103,03% | 106,56% |
Revenues and educational performance increase
To provide a better picture of the financial data, both graphs have been adjusted for inflation from 2010 onwards based on the CPB figures (2024). In the first figure (all universities together) we see that the total national contribution increases by 42%. The education component increases even more sharply: 72%. And if we also include tuition fees, the increase is almost 66%. The number of master's degrees increases by 63% and the number of bachelor's degrees by 71%.
In conclusion, we can say that the number of Bachelor's and Master's degrees is increasing at a slower rate as the education part of the national contribution and the education component plus tuition fees. The total national contribution is lagging behind.
Technical universities are lagging behind in terms of income
In the second figure (the four technical universities of Delft, Eindhoven, Twente and Wageningen) we see stronger developments in many of the parameters. First the income. The national contribution rises to 47%. The education component rises to 107%. The education component plus tuition fees rise to almost 100%. Then the diplomas. Bachelor's degrees rise to 103%. Master's degrees up to 107%.
This leads to the conclusion that the performance of these four technical universities lags behind the state contribution for these universities.
Matching pressure makes the ratio even more skewed
Note that in these figures we ignore the phenomenon of 'matching pressure'. Universities often use part of their teaching income to meet research commitments. See also the factsheet Het onderzoek aan universiteiten en UMC's (in Dutch).
Few differences between universities
In the figures above, the individual universities are not included separately. We have done this because there are few major differences between universities. For the sake of completeness, we can mention a few minor differences:
- The universities of Nijmegen and Utrecht are fairly constant in terms of the number of diplomas (especially for masters) and in the development of the national contribution.
- The universities of Leiden, Maastricht, en Delft are growing, especially in the case of master's degrees.
- The growth in bachelor's degrees is greater in Wageningen and Rotterdam.
- Leiden is the university with the strongest increases and Master's degrees.
More diplomas due to internationalisation and growing interest
Two developments underlie the sharp increase in the number of diplomas. The first is the internationalisation of universities. The second is the growing interest among Dutch young people.
In the period 2010 - 2023 , the number of foreign students has quadrupeld to 89,750 in 2023 (72,3% of them comes from the European Economic Area and are therefore eligible for funding) (Rathenau, 2024). We see this internationalisation in all the countries around us. The Netherlands ranks sixth in term of international students in higher education. We have more international students than Japan and South-Korea, a little less than France and Canada, and considerably less than the United Kingdom and Germany.
The second development that is causing an increase in the number of diplomas is the growing interest in university education among Dutch young people. There has been a trend since the 1960s for educational careers to become longer and longer and to end up higher and higher. The number of VWO graduates attending university education is likely to continue to rise slightly until the mid-2020s to 37,190, before declining sharply to 30,100 VWO graduates in 2023 (CBS, 2023). The effect of this second trend is present in the figures but is relatively small.
The data of the universities' income are based on the annual accounts of the universities and their annual collection in the 'Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs' (Student Finance, DUO) data books published in September of the following year. In the DUO data books, a distinction is made per university between four sources of income: the state contribution, tuition fees, work for third parties and the post other. Work for third parties contains the second flow of funds (NWO) and the third flow of funds (EU grants, assignments for companies and non-profit).
The data on the number of Bachelor's and Master's degrees are based on the 1-digit Higher Education file (DUO/ Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU)/ Statistics Netherlands (CBS)).
The data on foreign students per country come from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (indicator C4.1 from Education at a Glance). The figures on the development of the number of foreign students at Dutch universities come from the VSNU, which in turn bases this on the 1-digit HE file.
The data on the education component of the national contribution are based on the annual accounts of the universities (for the amount of the initial flow of funds realised), the annual reports of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) and the funding letters (which also include the EZK amounts).
For an explanation of the used definitions and abbreviations we refer to the webpage Definitions for Science in Figures.