PROFILE: Study pioneers
Jessica Heuser
Definition and Baseline
Pioneer students are defined as "individuals whose parents did not go to college" (Büchler 2012, p. 10). Even with a university entrance qualification, they are less likely to start studying than children from academic households (Isserstedt et al. 2010). In percentage terms, study pioneers are found more frequently at (technical) colleges than at universities. For example, the 20th Social Survey of the German Student Union (Middendorff et al. 2013) puts the percentage of study pioneers at universities at 44%, while universities of applied sciences have 62%.
According to the survey of first-year students in the winter semester 2012/13 (Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Ludwigshafen 2013), 72% of first-year students in bachelor's degree programs at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Ludwigshafen come from a non-academic household. The overall percentage of first-year students at the Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences is approximately 53% (Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences 2015)[1]. Most of the student pioneers at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Ludwigshafen (41%) come from a home with a medium educational background (parents have education but no degree). The proportion of students with a low educational background (parents without vocational training), or according to Bargel (2010) "educationally deprived strata", is 11.5% at the Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences. Already in the decision for or against studying, other factors often play a role for study pioneers than for children from academic households. Economic factors are in the foreground here. For example, pioneer students need more non-material and financial support, but are less likely to receive scholarships (Büchler 2012). If study pioneers decide to study, they perceive the financing of their studies to be less secure (50%) than that of students from academic parental homes (75%) (Isserstedt et al. 2010). At the same time, students with lower educational backgrounds are less likely to apply for BAföG because they want to avoid debt during their studies (ibid). As a result, employment alongside studies to cover living expenses is higher among pioneer students than among children from academic families (Büchler 2012).
In the 2014 Study Barometer of the Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences, it was surveyed that 66% of full-time students at the Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences are employed alongside their studies in order to finance their studies. The survey also shows that 62.5% of the pioneer students at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Ludwigshafen are gainfully employed, while only 37.5% of the academic students are gainfully employed alongside their full-time studies. Only just under half of all employed students at the Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences, regardless of their background, consider employment to be easily compatible with their studies (Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences 2015).
Impact on study situation and academic success
Financial insecurity is not the only obstacle for pioneering students before and during their studies; the difference in habitus between the non-academic milieu of origin and the university milieu also leads to difficulties. Forms of interaction and work, and especially academic language, are elements that are unfamiliar to pioneer students, in contrast to students from an academic home. The phase of finding one's way at the university takes longer, as the structure, language and manners are perceived as foreign and promote the development of a distance to the studies and the university culture (El-Mafaalani 2012). Student pioneers must learn academic language and academic manners because they are not common in the home environment. Monetary security during college does not change the habitus differences between college pioneers and children from academic families. Lange-Vester and Teiwes-Kügler (2004, p. 159 f.) write, for example, "[economic capital] does not provide educational pioneers with security in dealing with abstract concepts and scientific theories." Problems with the organization of studies, imprecise ideas about study content and the university system, and insecurity in dealing with lecturers are additional factors. Small groups and personal contact are ways for the university and lecturers to reduce the differences (Bargel 2010).
In the 2014 study barometer (Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Ludwigshafen 2015), the pioneers at the Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences stated that academic work (especially writing term papers and theses) caused them the greatest difficulties in their studies. The university can thus support study pioneers through modules with appropriate types of examinations as well as good supervision for scientific work. In their assessment of their own study situation[2] the 2014 Study Barometer (Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences 2015) did not reveal any significant differences between pioneering students and students from an academic home. Only the question about the desire for more elective modules shows divergences. Study pioneers expressed less frequently the desire to have a greater choice than students from an academic parental home. The desire for security and clear guidelines that make it easier to find one's way in an unfamiliar environment could explain the result.
Despite the challenges of pioneer students, Büchler (2012) notes that there are still no clear results on the relationship between dropout and parents' educational level. What can be stated, however, is that "dropouts are confronted with multiple problem situations and the dropout potential ultimately lies in their cumulative effect. The fact that those who have moved up in education see themselves burdened by their studies much more frequently and to a greater extent must therefore be interpreted as highly alarming" (Heublein et al. 2003, p. 29).
Literature
Bargel, T. (2010): Barriers and disadvantages for educational climbers. Konstanz.
Büchler, T. (2012): Students from non-academic parental homes in higher education. In: Working Paper 249, Hans Böckler Foundation.
El-Mafaalani, A. (2012): Educational advancement from disadvantaged backgrounds. Habit transformation and social mobility among natives and people of Turkish origin. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Heublein, U.; Sprangenberg, H.; Sommer, D. (2003): Causes of dropout. Analysis 2002. in: HIS Hochschul-Informations-System GmbH (ed.): Hochschulplanung, vol. 163. Hannover.
Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences (2013): Study program survey in winter semester 2012/13. Internal document.
Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences (2015): Student barometer. University-wide student survey. Winter semester 2014/2015. unpublished document. With the collaboration of Keller, A. Evaluation officer of the university. Ludwigshafen am Rhein.
Isserstedt, W.; Middendorff, E.; Kandulla, M.; Borchert, L.; Leszczensky, M. (2010): The economic and social situation of students in the Federal Republic of Germany 2009: 19th social survey of the Studentenwerk. Bonn/Berlin: Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Lange-Vester, A.; Teiwes-Kügler, C. (2004): Social inequalities and lines of conflict in the student field. Empirical findings on student milieus in the social sciences. In: Cultural capital and the power of class structures. Weinheim/Munich: Juventa, pp. 159-187.
Middendorff, E.; Apolinarski, B.; Poskowsky, J.; Kandulla, M.; Netz, N. (2013): The economic and social situation of students in Germany 2012: 20th Social Survey of the German Student Union conducted by the HIS Institute for Higher Education Research. Available online at www.sozialerhebung.de/download/20/soz20_hauptbericht_gesamt.pdf, last checked 25.04.2016.
Citation
Heuser, Jessica (2017): Profile: study pioneers. In: Rump, Jutta; Buß, Imke; Kaiser, Janina; Schiedhelm, Melanie; Schorat-Waly, Petra: Toolbox for good teaching in a diverse student body. Working Papers of the Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences, No. 6. www.hwg-lu.de/arbeitspapiere
Use according to Creative Commons under attribution (please use given citation) and for non-commercial purposes.
[1] From this, one could conclude that the proportion of study pioneers is decreasing in the transition from bachelor to master transitions. However, the response rate of the 2014 Study Barometer was only 14%.
[2] Surveyed in question blocks on: difficulties in studying, being informed, assessment of the quality of teaching, development of knowledge and skills, improvement of personal study situation, and time planning of studies.