Since January 1 educational institutes have become responsible for keeping up with the academic performance of their students from outside the European Economic Area (EU, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland). When students have obtained less than half of their credits, the institute is compelled to report this to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND). This Service will then revoke the student’s residence permit.

For non-EEA students studying on TU/e scholarships the new measure does not change that much. Even now they need to meet stringent requirements: under TU/e guidelines they must obtain 75 percent of their credits in order to receive their funding for the next year, so that is above the new IND requirement.

It appears as if the situation with TU/e students who may not be able to meet the standard is not all that bad. By way of illustration: the cohort of 2008 included 102 international students on scholarships. Only two of these failed to obtain fifty percent of their credits, the International Office (STU) informs us. Department head dr. Karen Ali emphasizes that students who have good reasons for not attaining the 50% standard can simply stay in the Netherlands to finish their studies.

The advantage of the new law is that students will no longer need to extend their residence permits every year. Non-EEA students will as of 2011 be granted residence permits for the duration of their entire program. In addition to getting rid of bureaucratic nonsense, they will also be saving fifty euros per extension. (SK/HOP)