Universities should be more accessible for first generation academics

Academics who are the first in their families to go to university, do not always feel at home at universities. In a report, the Young Academy says that making the unwritten rules more explicit would help.

Drawing on interviews with 12 academics, the First but not least report shows that first-generation university students sometimes have feelings of alienation, insecurity and the lack of support. They see themselves as imposters. Despite their achievements, they believe that they do not belong in the academic world.

Between two worlds

Odette Scharenborg, Associate Professor of Computer Science at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, is a first generation academic. She was also one of the people interviewed. “Others may see me as a talent, but I always have the feeling that it’s not me, despite the fact that I did everything.”

The research also shows that the academics can feel alienated from the environment in which they grew up too. Scharenborg: “I sometimes hear comments that as an academic, I don’t understand anything of the outside world. I have also long heard the question when I will finally start working.”

The academics themselves see their respective backgrounds as a strength. Scharenborg: “To my mind, I have reached this point through hard work, stubbornness and not giving up.”

Unwritten rules

Some of the interviewees received a lot of support from mentors who helped them navigate the unknown, and sometimes unfriendly, academic world. The Young Academy says that a good mentoring programme would also help others.

Another piece of advice to universities is to make the unwritten rules of the academic world explicit as first generation academics are often unfamiliar with them. For the rest, the Young Academy recommends universities to ‘not only think about gender and migration backgrounds, but also about less visible kinds of diversity such as first generation status’.

HOP, Naomi Bergshoeff/Delta, Inger Duursma