Looking to study and live in Netherlands

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

To find a course, this link will take you to the Study in Holland website, it lists all the courses taught in English.  You should be aware that these courses are not free; I just had a quick look and the only course I could see listed is at the University of Amsterdam.

With the UK leaving the EU soon, you will (may?) need a residence permit; this link will take you to the Dutch government (IND) website that explains the process and will help you through it.  Once you live there, the circumstances under which your permit was originally issued can change for a variety of reasons, if that happens, you do have to notify the IND and they will advise you further.  You should be aware there is no guarantee that any changes will result in a different or extended permit, but in general, the Dutch encourage qualified people to stay and work there.

Schooling is compulsory in the Netherlands, home teaching is not allowed.  The state school system is kind of free (you have to pay for school books at secondary school) and of high quality.

Childcare is available but not all of it is free (in fact I think you have to pay all of it if you have not paid into the Social Fund - i.e. worked in the Netherlands previously), so I'm assuming you're going to come to Holland with money behind you.  If your next question is how much - it varies and with a lot of university choices, impossible for me to answer, you'd be best advised to ask the University you are considering as they will have facilities for their own staff.

Social meetings - not something I ever did, but I have an extended Dutch family, so inherited a lot of friends and family events from that.  Where we live in the east, there are plenty of associations and sporting groups where we could take part.  Amateur sports are a big thing in the Netherlands and a really useful way of meeting people.

Property - renting anywhere in the Netherlands is always a problem; such accommodation is always in short supply, so very expensive even when you can find something and in Amsterdam, it's even more of a problem and an extremely expensive place to live.  To give you an idea, this link will take you to the Pararius website, they are one of many web-based agencies that have the details of what's available (and it has an English option); you just enter the name of the town, fill in any other relevant information and hit search.

If you have any further specific questions, please come back to us.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team