Determinants of Study Progress: The Impact of Student, Curricular, and Contextual Factors on Study Progress in University Education

The subject of this research is the impact of student characteristics, curriculum, and contextual factors on the careers of students in university education in The Netherlands. A theoretical model including various measurements of these factors was evaluated by means of linear structural equation modelling. Students in the ‘prestatiebeurs’ (performance scholarship) system, which requires a shorter nominal duration of a given study programme, achieve better results compared to those in the ‘tempobeurs’ system, which allows more study time. Women make better progress in their studies than men do. Students in technical education obtain fewer study points than others, even though they spend more time studying and have earned better grades in secondary school. In general, paid work during higher education has a negative effect on study progress, while the amount of time spent studying has a stronger influence on the study progress of men than of women.