Social context
In Switzerland, the later educational success of future generations and their acquisition of educational qualifications, as well as the subsequent course of their lives, can be effortlessly predicted on the basis of the non-performance-related criterion of social origin. It has been scientifically proven that the binary higher education system is impermeably segmented. Despite gradual expansion of the higher education sector, access is socially selective (by origin and gender).
The issue of social selectivity is hardly visible at the institutional level at universities. The strategic and structural anchoring of the topic as well as the taking of concrete measures are lacking. This had also been highlighted by the Swiss Science Council in its report "Social selectivity - Recommendations of the Swiss Science Council SWR Expert Report" (2018).
P-7 Project«Social selectivity by social origin»
In order to be able to advance the reduction of social selectivity, more knowledge regarding the development of measures must be generated in a first step in cooperation with educational research and the Federal Statistical Office. The swissuniversities P7 project "Social selectivity based on social origin" addresses this issue. Between 2021 and 2024, the project will develop support measures at universities as well as policy recommendations to reduce social selectivity in the Swiss education system. Publications, networking and awareness-raising at lower and upper secondary schools, universities of teacher education and education policy actors, as well as raising awareness among the general public, are also central to this.
The University of Fribourg is coordinating the inter-university project. The Universities of Bern, Lucerne, St. Gallen and Zurich are also involved.