16th Meeting of Senior Fellowships Officers of the ... - Development

4 Administrative Issues
M. Implementation of Fellowships–The Role of National Placement
and Supervising Agencies
Intervention by Mr. Beer Schroder, the Netherlands Organization for International
Co-operation in Higher Education and Research (NUFFIC)
137. Mr. Schroder began his intervention with a brief description of the activities of his organization.
NUFFIC was involved in the placement of fellows of the United Nations system
organizations in the Netherlands. It also collaborated with the European Commission,
the Netherlands fellowship programme as well as with other countries. It was a non-profit
and independent organization which focused on developing countries and countries in
transition. NUFFIC rendered services to the clients according to their specific requirements
by placing fellows in the best-fitted training institutions to achieve specific development
goals. NUFFIC also advised UN agencies on Dutch institutions as regards prices
and services.
138. Mr. Schroeder addressed the issue of taxation. Generally speaking, fellowship holders
were exempted from taxation in the Netherlands. However, international students that
worked more than ten hours a week became taxable. Besides falling under taxation,
since 1 January 2006 entering a legal and paid labor relationship required adhering
to the national health scheme with at least minimum basic coverage. Basic coverage
amounted to 100 Euros per month while the insurance that NUFFIC arranged for fellows
ran below 40 Euros per month. Taxes were high in the Netherlands with percentages
ranging between 35% and 50%. If a fellow worked more than 10 hours–besides
the full time studies–not only would the income become taxable but also the stipend.
For those reasons NUFFIC strongly advised fellows not to entertain any labor contract.
139. On the topic of administrative fees, Mr. Schroder pointed out that there was a very high
and still growing number of institutions in the Netherlands which offered international
courses in English. Approximately 1200 Master’s courses were conducted in English.
Due to the high demand for study places more and more institutions had introduced
a tuition fee. NUFFIC negotiated regularly with institution to waive those fees for fellows.
Institutions which did not waive tuition fees for fellows were not considered for
placement by NUFFIC.
140. With respect to visas for fellows, Mr. Schroder noted that the Netherlands had experienced
a high influx of immigrants over the last few years. Among them there were many
asylum seekers whose cases led to an intricate juridical regulation which prolonged the
processing of an asylum request up to five years. The Dutch Ministry of Justice showed a
stringent tendency to lower the number of immigrants. Due to protests from the public,
however, the rules applied to international students allowed them to obtain visas within