Inequality of opportunity in selection procedures limits diversity in higher education: An intersectional study of Dutch selective higher education programs

on CVs, but had higher biomedical knowledge test scores than women. On curriculum-sam- pling tests, applicants with a non-Western migration background had lower scores. CV-scores were lower for first-generation Western immigrants, and significantly lower GPAs were found for first-generation university applicants. Since each program decides the content of their selection procedure, it is important to consider the unique selection context of each HEI. The results of Fikrat-Wevers et al. and this study show that inequality of opportunity in the selec- tion is context-dependent and may change over the years. Therefore, we suggest it is important to replicate our research in future years. Rejecting low SES applicants and applicants with a migration background results in a loss of potential. Individuals who managed to overcome multiple barriers on the way to reaching the eligibility requirements of HE [26] are definitely talented. Moreover, in some contexts, stu- dents from lower SES backgrounds perform better than students who came from higher SES backgrounds and were admitted with the same or a similar GPA [28, 57, 58]. Thus, by rejecting low SES applicants, HEIs lose out on these applicants’ contributions to educational quality. Furthermore, society foregoes the opportunity of providing upward socio-economic mobility [59] to members of families who may have had low wealth for generations, which constitutes an economic loss. Society also misses out on the contributions which these applicants could

bring to future policymaking and leadership, which are grounded in experiences, knowledge and skills that current leadership from high wealth backgrounds lacks [60]. In our study, the majority of applicants with a migration background are born in The Neth- erlands (and one or both parents were born abroad). Based on this, these applicants are likely to speak other languages in addition to Dutch and English, which can be useful in the labor market after graduation. For example, most selective programs are related to healthcare (see Table 1). Multilingualism is highly valuable in providing excellent patient care in a diverse society [61]. When a fair share of applicants with a migration background would be admitted, then it is more likely that future healthcare providers are able to speak the languages of the patients they serve. They may also bring with them socio-cultural knowledge that applicants without a migration background may lack. These skills and knowledge bases would be imme- diately beneficial to culturally sensitive healthcare provision in a multicultural society, and in improving health equity [61, 62]. For example, the study cluster with the highest level of inequality partly consists of Midwifery, for which there are no non-selective alternatives in The Netherlands. This is a healthcare field in which globally, societal inequities and systemic injustice play a large role in unequal outcomes in sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn health [63]. It is therefore of utmost importance that student populations of these programs

become representative of their patient population, in order to contribute to equitable health- care provision in these areas. Recommendations In ‘The Tyranny of Merit’ [14], Michael Sandel discusses why rejecting low SES applicants in favor of applicants from elite backgrounds is an affront to the idea of meritocracy. He therefore proposes the use of lottery-based admission. However, our research shows that compared to the age cohort, applicant pools of many selective programs predominantly consist of students from higher SES backgrounds without an underrepresented migration background (such as Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese, Dutch Caribbean or Indonesian). This is especially the case for university programs. The lack of a representative applicant pool, especially in the area of migration background and SES, is mainly due to educational inequality on the route to the gates of HE (e.g. lower expectations by the education system [26] in the transition from pri- mary to secondary school), resulting in non-representative higher general and pre-university PLOS ONE Inequality of opportunity in Dutch selection procedures limits diversity in higher education PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0292805 October 13, 2023 18 / 24