The Council of State issued a landmark decision today on the rights of international (non-EU) students. In a case brought by Scheers Advocatuur, the Council of State ruled that an international student who achieves insufficient academic results cannot simply be deregistered with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) by their educational institution (on the basis of which the IND can revoke their residence permit). Furthermore, the Council of State confirms that, even if the residence permit is revoked, the student retains the right to (re)enroll in the program.

The Council of State ruled that the policy based on the Code of Conduct for International Students in Higher Education is not a generally binding regulation and exceptions can be made to this. For example, this Code of Conduct stipulates that a student can only invoke personal circumstances once as a reason for insufficient academic results to prevent deregistration. However, the Council of State has ruled that a student does not need to be deregistered with the IND if there is an ongoing personal circumstance that adversely affects their study progress in a new academic year. This is a significant extension.

Furthermore, it is important that international students are allowed to continue their studies even after deregistration and revocation of their residence permit (even if their stay is illegal). Whether the restrictions resulting from the denial of lawful residence violates the right to equal treatment with regard to study progress (see the previous news item on this topic) remains unanswered in this ruling.

In any case, if the educational institution wishes to deregister the international student with the IND, it is now even more important to object to this deregistration in a timely manner and not to wait for IND’s decision on the revocation of the residence permit. If the residence permit is revoked, the student can also object and invoke the right to equal treatment. Scheers Advocatuur is happy to assist students in this matter!