UvA to start charging registration fee to international students seeking bachelor's degrees
The UvA will begin charging a €100 registration fee to international students enrolling in bachelor programs starting in the academic year 2023/2024. This has been decided by the Executive Board.
Since September 2021, educational institutions have been allowed to charge a maximum registration fee of €100. The UvA wants to introduce a registration fee to cover the costs of processing applications. Due to the increasing number of international students, applications and associated degree evaluations of international prospective bachelor's students constitute "a heavy burden" for the organization.
With the registration fee, UvA also hopes to reduce the number of "phantom registrations": registrations of international students who register at multiple universities and then deregister again once they have decided where they actually want to study. The conversion rate for UvA bachelor students - the percentage of international students who actually start the program relative to the number of applications - is 39 percent. At the Vrije Universiteit, where the registration fee has already been introduced, it is 80 percent, according to the UvA. Utrecht University also works with so-called application fees.
The Board intends to have international students pay a registration fee for master's programs as well, but this requires an impact assessment with faculties first. This is scheduled for spring 2022.
