{"id":163830,"date":"2024-02-06T10:34:56","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T09:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=163830"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:09","slug":"how-does-your-background-affect-your-academic-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2024\/02\/06\/how-does-your-background-affect-your-academic-chances\/","title":{"rendered":"How does your background affect your academic chances?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fewer young people with a migrant background go to university than you might expect. For the first time in years, universities are starting to obtain a clearer view of their academic opportunities.<\/p>\n

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Six universities are taking a deep dive into the statistics on the admission and performance of students whose father or mother was born outside the Netherlands. Leiden, Rotterdam, Wageningen, Utrecht and the two Amsterdam universities (VU and UvA) are taking part.<\/p>\n

This is the first study of its kind since 2017, reveals Maurice Crul, Professor of Education and Diversity at VU Amsterdam. Until then, educational institutions received this kind of data as a matter of course, but more recent privacy laws have restricted access.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout data, it\u2019s impossible to see differences in dropout rates and academic performance between groups with different backgrounds\u201d, Crul explains. Every university in the country now has a diversity office and diversity policies in place, but they lack the figures to assess the impact of their efforts.<\/p>\n

Wider variety<\/h2>

For the purposes of this study, the researchers have been able to obtain the relevant data from Statistics Netherlands after all. Their first conclusion: today\u2019s student intake covers a wider variety of backgrounds than in the past. The vast majority of this group used to consist of students with one or both parents born in Morocco, Turkey, Suriname, Indonesia or the Caribbean Netherlands. Now the range of backgrounds is far more diverse.<\/p>\n

Another conclusion: fewer students with a migrant background have gone to university in recent years than you might expect. The student loan system appears to be partly responsible. Higher education has become more expensive for students who progress to university via other forms of further education, a route by which many students with a migrant background arrive at university.<\/p>\n

Once at university, the data also shows that they are less likely than students from other groups to complete their degree. That said, Crul introduces a note of caution: the data is not yet clear enough to draw firm conclusions. The student numbers are small and, for privacy reasons, individual data has to be rounded up to groups of ten. \u201cWe plan to ask the stats people to aggregate the figures for certain groups so that we can also see if their field of study plays a role.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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