Inspection: tutoring is booming business

Inspection: tutoring is booming business

 

One in five students pay for “additional education”, writes the Education Inspection in the State of Education. This includes, for example, thesis supervision or tutoring to pass a class. The costs fluctuate around two hundred euros.

This so-called “shadow education” can lead to unequal opportunities. Students from poorer families make less use of it than students from richer families, the inspectors conclude. “Not all parents and students can afford supplementary education.

It happens even more often at universities than at university of applied sciences. Of the master’s students, 21 percent have purchased supplementary education at some point, compared to 17 percent of the senior year hbo students. A poll on Delta’s Instagram shows that of the 644 respondents, only 14 per cent have ever purchased additional education.

 

No idea

Universities of applied sciences and universities often have no idea that their students are paying for tutoring: 72 percent of these students have said nothing to lecturers about it, sometimes out of fear that they will judge them critically.

This has to change, according to the Inspection. If lecturers discuss shadow education with their students, they will know “better than through subject evaluations alone” how students experience the guidance provided by the study programme and what their needs are. (HOP, BB/EF)