Dutch tuition for non-EU students is rising: what the 2027 intake should budget for

Dutch universities are raising the fees they charge students from outside the EU. Each university sets these fees itself, programme by programme, so there is no single national figure to look up. This article explains what the 2027 intake should expect and compares the Netherlands with Germany, where most public universities charge no tuition. If you are still choosing a field, take whatshouldistudy's free questionnaire first, then check the fee for each programme on your list.

Who pays the national rate

The Dutch government sets one statutory tuition rate for students from the EU and EEA, Switzerland and Suriname. According to Utrecht University, that rate was €2,601 in 2025/26 and is €2,694 in 2026/27. The rate follows inflation. The ministry looks at average inflation from May to April, which was 2.85% for May 2025 to April 2026. That points to €2,771 for 2027/28. The ministry has not yet published the official figure, so treat €2,771 as a projection.

Non-EU students are outside this rate, and their fees are set by each university. The PPLE programme at the University of Amsterdam says its fees are indexed every year, so the figure you read today may change before you enrol.

Older guides can mislead you. Some still quote €2,530, which iamexpat reported as the EU/EEA rate for 2024/25. Use the figure for the year you start.

What non-EU students pay in the Netherlands

The PPLE programme lists €19,100 a year for non-EU/EEA students in 2026/27. On the same page, EU/EEA students pay €5,660. Studypath, a Dutch study guide, explains that programmes labelled small-scale and intensive can be priced above the statutory rate, up to five times that rate. That explains why the EU/EEA figure at PPLE is higher than the national rate of €2,694.

StudyU lists these fees for non-EU students:

• Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e): €18,600 in 2026/27, rising to €22,400 in 2027/28, about a fifth more
• Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), bachelor's: €19,906 in 2026/27, rising to €20,563 in 2027/28

StudyU is a student guide. It says it checked its figures against official sources on 24 September 2026, and it lists the TU/e rise as already set.

Fees also vary by field. StudyU gives these 2026/27 figures for non-EU students:

• Economics and business bachelor's, University of Amsterdam: €13,900
• Science bachelor's, University of Amsterdam: €21,800
• Medicine at the University of Amsterdam, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the University of Groningen and Maastricht University: €32,000 to €34,700

Study-abroad.org says non-EU fees are steepest in engineering and science.

Fee calculators can mislead too. Studypath's 2026 tuition calculator gives a typical non-EU bachelor's range of €8,000 to €25,000 a year. That range is too wide to plan from, so use the page for your own programme.

Check the application dates as carefully as the fees. A StudyU guide dated 28 September 2026 lists 15 January for fixed-quota programmes and 1 May for most others. It says many universities advise non-EU applicants to finish by 1 April. Confirm each date on your programme page for the intake you want.

Germany is mostly free, with two exceptions

The DAAD, Germany's academic exchange service, says fee-free study is the default for bachelor's and most master's courses at German state institutions. Two exceptions matter for non-EU students.

Baden-Württemberg has charged non-EU students €1,500 per semester since the 2017/18 winter semester. That is about €3,000 a year by simple arithmetic. Its universities include Heidelberg, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Freiburg, Tübingen and Mannheim, according to College Council's guide to German tuition. In Bavaria, each university sets its own fee for non-EU students, and DAAD says some of these fees reach several thousand euros a semester.

Every German student also pays a semester contribution of €70 to €430. DAAD says this covers services and the student government, not tuition.

Private universities are a separate case. College Council gives a tuition range of €18,000 to €30,000 a year for 2025/26 at a small number of private, mostly English-language universities, including Constructor University Bremen, CBS International Business School in Cologne and Bard College Berlin.

A non-EU student at a public university in most German states pays the semester contribution and no tuition. Bavaria is the case to check, because its universities set their own rules. Many of the Dutch bachelor's figures above sit between €18,600 and €22,400 a year, depending on the university and the year.

Budgeting for the year you enrol

Tuition is only part of the bill. Non-EU/EEA students also need a financial guarantee for the visa, according to HAN University of Applied Sciences. WeCoverseas Education's guide to studying in the Netherlands in 2027 gives the Dutch proof-of-funds figure as €1,130.77 a month for 2026. Over twelve months, that comes to about €13,570 by simple arithmetic. The figure changes each 1 January, so check it on the IND website, the Dutch immigration service, before you apply.

Here is a worked example. A non-EU bachelor's place at TU/e in 2027/28 would cost €22,400 in tuition. Add the living-funds figure of about €13,570 and the total is about €36,000. This is an illustration only. The living figure is the money you must show for the visa. Your real spending on rent, food and travel depends on your city and lifestyle.

Proof-of-funds rules differ by country. Australia's living-cost requirement for a student visa is AUD 29,710 a year, as reported by NRI Affairs in 2026. Each government sets its own figure, so compare the rules for every country on your list.

Scholarships can lower the bill. The Holland Scholarship gives a one-off €5,000 to non-EEA bachelor's and master's students who start at a participating institution. The Ministry of Education and about thirty universities fund it, and deadlines fall around 1 February, according to College Council. In Germany, the Deutschlandstipendium pays €300 a month on merit at participating universities, half from federal funds and half from private donors. International students can apply.

Ask the admissions office of each university whether your fee is indexed every year. Parents who pay the bill should ask the same question, because the figure on a university page today may not be the one on your first invoice.