Study: educational advancement particularly difficult in this country

This is shown by the german analysis of the fourth eurostudent report now presented by the hochschulinformationssystem (HIS) in hanover. Children from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds find it particularly difficult to get into higher education.

In a comparison of 25 european countries, the federal republic of germany is at the bottom of the league in terms of social education requirements – along with croatia, poland, latvia and slovakia. According to the criteria of the international study, a person with a low educational background is someone who has only completed secondary school or a year of vocational preparation.

Of the eurostudent countries, portugal and turkey are the most successful in attracting children from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds to higher education. In both countries, they make up almost half of the students, at 45 percent.

Conversely, germany is one of the countries in which it is almost taken for granted that children from academic parents will in turn find their way to university. Overall, 69 percent of students have parents with a university degree. Only in denmark, with 79 percent, is this proportion of students even higher.

In almost all of the countries surveyed, the children of academics are significantly more likely to go abroad for a period of study than those from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. This is particularly pronounced in denmark, spain and italy, for example.

But germany and sweden are exceptions here: the participation of the two groups in study abroad differs only slightly. German students with a bafog entitlement can take their entitlement with them to other european countries from the first semester onwards. Sweden, like the other nordic countries, also has a functioning demand system.

In germany, however, there is a relatively large group of students from families with an intermediate educational background (almost 30 percent) who go abroad for study periods much less frequently than their fellow students with academically educated parents. Asked about the reasons, german students cited financial problems and, above all, fears of losing time and of a lack of recognition of study achievements abroad. Both hurdles, however, are estimated to be higher by students from parents with a low educational background than by children of academics.

More than 200,000 students in 25 countries were surveyed for the eurostudent report.