Page 242 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

of pre-university students do (CBS, 2017a). e problem is, however, that these initiatives for integrative practices do not yet have a large reach. First, for schools in the countryside, far removed from a university city, organising o ine initiatives is challenging, e.g., students would have to travel far to attend an information day, course, or lecture at university and it is very time-consuming for university sta to visit such schools. Second, as things stand now, only a handful of talented students in the Netherlands currently follow (online) university courses during their secondary school years. ese classes are neither regarded nor advertised as a measure contributing to every student’s university readiness, but more as a form of academic enrichment for high-achieving students (e.g., the Pre- University College of the University of Leiden and the U-Talent programme at the University of Utrecht). It seems likely that this will lead to a Matthew e ect regarding university readiness: ose who will probably not be facing many transition problems in the rst place because they belong to the group of overall highly engaged students (Chapter 5), will get even better prepared by following university courses. erefore, it would be recommendable to seek ways in which integrative practices would reach all students, for example by making it mandatory for all students in the upper grades to take a short online university course in a topic they are interested in.
8.5.4 More university-educated teachers
In the Netherlands, the two most common pathways to becoming a teacher in the
three upper grades of pre-university education are a university bachelor’s degree
in a discipline closely related to a school subject, followed by a university master’s
degree in teacher education, or a bachelor and a master of teacher education in a
speci c school subject at an institute for professional education. (Teaching the three 8 lower grades of pre-university education is also allowed a er a university bachelor
in a eld related to a school subject, followed by a 30 EC educational programme in the third bachelor year, and a er completing a bachelor of teacher education in a speci c subject in professional education.) Most current upper grade pre-university teachers hold a university diploma, but as these teachers grow older and the number of students in teacher education programmes at universities is declining, the percentage of university-educated teachers is decreasing (KNAW, 2017). e question that needs to be asked, then, is: What does this mean for university preparation at secondary schools? We think there are two main reasons why university-educated teachers are likely to be more capable of university preparation
Conclusion and discussion
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