In most other European countries, educational expansion has taken place over the past decades. Yet, inequalities in pathways to higher education remain (Marginson, 2016). This is the case in the Netherlands as well – students’ social background still influences the travelled pathways to higher education. Students whose parents did not go to higher education, disabled students or students with a bicultural background are less likely to enter higher education right after secondary education (Van den Broek et al., 2022). Rather, they more often follow a so-called "indirect" route to higher education, using alternative pathways to reach their aspirations.

In the Dutch stratified educational system, students’ educational track placement in secondary education is crucial. The pre-academic tracks give direct access to higher education, whereas vocational secondary education tracks prepare students for post-secondary vocational education. Students from less privileged backgrounds are more frequently selected into these vocational secondary education tracks in their transition from primary to secondary education, independent of students’ performance (Kloosterman et al., 2009). Therefore, they more frequently have to “stack” diplomas before gaining access to higher education (Visser et al., 2022), by gaining multiple diplomas in secondary education or moving from post-secondary vocational to post-secondary academic education. These pathways are longer, and students in these pathways more often drop-out or face obstacles - having to traverse multiple transitions. Even when these students are part of the pre-academic tracks in secondary education, they are more likely to self-select on their path to higher education (Vietze et al., 2022). This means they decide not to go for the highest level of higher education, even though they are qualified to do so. The differences in travelled pathways to higher education are not the result from differences in educational performance, and are considered unjust from a meritocratic point of view. .

The Dutch educational system does not put up additional barriers for students from various social backgrounds, and is supposed to provide equal pathways to higher education. The educational system and the barriers that are part of it – for example, the entry requirements to post-secondary education – are similar for all students. To find out why students who face the same formal conditions in reality differ in their pathways to higher education, this study aims to uncover students’ perceptions of the path to higher education. Students from various social backgrounds might differ in their perceptions of the opportunities and obstacles on the path to higher education (Merton, 1995). Students from less privileged backgrounds could anticipate or experience different obstacles (Voigt, 2007), or see different opportunities as (un)available to them (Schoon & Lyons-Amos, 2016). Identifying students’ perceptions, and possible differences in them, could help us improve our knowledge as to why some students within the same opportunity structure nonetheless differ in their pathways to higher education (Whitty et al., 2015). The aim of this study therefore is to find out what students’ perceptions of the opportunities and obstacles on the path to higher education are, and whether these perceptions differ between students from various social backgrounds.

This study uses a cross-sectional, quantitative research design. Students at various ages in the educational pathway before entering higher education are surveyed. These are students in year 7, which in the Netherlands is the last year of primary school, as well as in year 9 and year 11. Given the tracked nature of the Dutch educational system, students at various ages have or have not been placed in a specific track. Looking at students’ perceptions at various ages in the educational pathway helps us to see whether differences between these ages exist, and whether track placement might play a role in development of these perceptions. A new questionnaire has been developed to test students’ perceptions based on previous literature and insights from a previous qualitative study the authors did. The questionnaire has been piloted in several rounds in focus groups with students. Their feedback was used to improve the questionnaire. In the questionnaire, students are asked about their educational aspirations and expectations and the educational path they expect to follow and how feasible this trajectory they perceive this trajectory. Further, we touch upon obstacles such as financial barriers or perceived parental support. In each age-category, between five hundred and a thousand students are included, in all tracks of secondary education as well as throughout all provinces of the Netherlands. Questionnaires are administered in school classes across the Netherlands in Spring 2023. The data will be analysed using multi-level structural equation modelling, to account for the nested nature of the data.

We expect to find differences among students from various social backgrounds in the perceptions of the path to higher education. The perceived options available to them are likely to differ, even though the formal options are similar. These differences in perceptions of the obstacles and opportunities might relate to students’ educational aspirations and expectations: the more opportunities students perceive on their path to higher education, the more feasible reaching a higher education level will be. We are curious to find whether these differences are visible from students from various social backgrounds – first-generation students, disabled students as well as students with a bicultural background – and if so, at which points. These outcomes can be of great information into why students from various social backgrounds differ in their pathways to higher education. During the ECER Emerging Research Conference, we will be able to portray our first results and are happy to discuss the first interpretations of these analyses.

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