{"id":168335,"date":"2024-05-24T13:59:32","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T11:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=168335"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:21","slug":"discrimination-by-duo-even-worse-than-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2024\/05\/24\/discrimination-by-duo-even-worse-than-thought\/","title":{"rendered":"Discrimination by DUO even worse than thought"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could we have a quick look to see if a student actually lives here? Even in case of low<\/em> risk of fraud involving the basic student grant, students of non-European descent received more frequent visits by Education Executive Agency (DUO) inspectors than others, figures from Statistic Netherlands (CBS) show.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPauline Wiersema<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Earlier this spring, the outgoing cabinet apologised for student finance agency DUO\u2019s \u2018indirect discrimination\u2019 in tackling abuse of the basic grant for students living away from home.<\/p>\n

These apologies followed the scathing conclusions drawn by PwC, which confirmed the outcome of a journalistic investigation<\/a>: it is indeed striking how often DUO\u2019s fraud investigators target students with a migration background.<\/p>\n

But hard figures on the migration background of students weren\u2019t available. Everything was done based on last names and assessments. Now, statistics agency CBS has shared data on this with Algorithm Audit, a foundation that gives advice on the use of algorithms.<\/p>\n\n\t

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