Netherlands: Immigrant girls doing better in studies

Netherlands: Immigrant girls doing better in studies


Immigrant female students in higher education are on the march.  Even more, they score better than ethnic Dutch boys.  Immigrant boys remain far behind.

After five years of study, currently 51.7% of ethnic Dutch boys have a HBO diploma (higher applied education).  That percentage has been dropping for years.  For the immigrant female students, we see the opposite.  51.6% of them got the much desired piece of paper in five years and that percentage is increasing.

Of the immigrant boys, less than 38% graduated within five years.  After eight years of cramming, barely half have a diploma.

Huug de Deugd, director of legal studies in the Rotterdam HBO school InHolland, sees an enormous drive among immigrant female students.  "They give their ambition a better shape than immigrant boys" is the experience of De Deugd.  He estimates that about 70% of his students are immigrants.  An even larger percentage are women.  He says that girls are more likely to sink into their teeth into their studies, while boys drop out much more easily.

He says that the success of immigrant female students is even better, since they often have to cross various barriers before getting to school.  In the beginning of their studies you see that the drop-out rate among immigrants is 20% higher than by ethnic Dutch.  Often it's the first generation students.  It happens more often among immigrants since they have  various tasks at home, or have to deal with language problems and debts.

De Deugd can't say whether certain groups of immigrants do better than others.  He says that for a long time it wasn't tactful to study that, it was considered stigmatizing.  In the meantime, there's more allowance for it and then they could help various groups better.

Source: AD (Dutch)

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