Study in the Netherlands

Nuffic puts the institutional rate at EUR 12,000 to EUR 30,000 a year for a master's and EUR 9,000 to EUR 20,000 for a bachelor's. You will also see EUR 2,694 quoted widely as the cost of a Dutch degree for 2026-27: that is the statutory fee for students from the EU, EEA and Switzerland, and an Indian student is not charged it. The gap between the two is the single most common surprise on a Dutch application.

There were 376,000 unfilled vacancies at the end of 2026 Q3, which is the Dutch national statistics office's own figure. What that number is not is a list of jobs waiting for international graduates. Most will be filled by people already in the Dutch labour market and most require Dutch. The sectors that genuinely hire graduates in English are information and communication, specialised business services, and finance in Amsterdam. Treat the headline as evidence that the economy is short of people, not as a job offer.

Yes, and it is one allowance with two settings rather than two allowances: either a maximum of 16 hours a week across the year, or full-time during June, July and August. Never both. Your employer has to hold a work permit (a TWV) for you and must apply for it at least five weeks before you start — the right does not travel with your own student permit, which is what most students assume. Self-employment is outside both the permit and the hours cap, and so is a traineeship that forms part of your programme.

It is a one-year residence permit for graduates of an accredited Dutch institution. While you hold it you may work for any employer without that employer needing a work permit, and you may work as an independent entrepreneur. The part people get wrong is the timing: the IND measures eligibility as a qualification completed in the three years before the date you apply, not as a sprint from the ceremony. It cannot be extended and only one is granted.

Fewer than most sites suggest. The NL Scholarship, formerly the Holland Scholarship, is EUR 5,000 paid once in your first year, and Nuffic states plainly that it is not a full-tuition scholarship. Erasmus+ funds part of a degree at a partner institution. Beyond those, the larger awards are run by the universities themselves and are not centrally listed. The Orange Knowledge Programme ended in 2024 with no further rounds, and Indian study-abroad sites still advertise it as though it were open.

Not to study. The Netherlands teaches a large share of its degrees in English and that is why Indian students go. To work there after you graduate is a different question, and the answer depends entirely on the sector: information and communication, specialised business services and international finance hire in English; healthcare, public administration, construction and most of retail do not. The job table on this page says which is which, because it is the part that decides whether those vacancy numbers mean anything for you.

The Netherlands works to application deadlines rather than published national intake months: 15 January for numerus fixus programmes, which are the capped ones, and 1 May for most others. Start months are set per programme by the institution, which is why we do not print a national intake month for the Netherlands when we print one for most destinations. Nuffic publishes none, so inventing one would be inventing it.