Our contribution to equal opportunity
OUR MISSION:
“We fund higher education fairly and sustainably with the Income Share Agreement so that every person can develop freely.”
Our mission does not explicitly state equal opportunity as a goal. But the free development of every individual requires access to education regardless of financial background. And that’s why, since our founding in 2016, we’ve been tracking whether the students we support are characterised by greater diversity in terms of their parents’ educational background than the cross section of all young students. In addition, we have been surveying the percentage of students with a migration background. These two indicators form the basis of our Impact Report. This survey continues to be important, as the 2022 Education Report again notes: “Children from non-academic families are significantly less likely to study than children from academic families” and “eligible students from non-academic families are significantly less likely to choose to study than eligible students from academic families.” Financial reasons are cited as the most important factor in the decision not to study. This is a barrier that we can lower.
In accordance with the Theory of Change, we want to regularly measure the achievement of our mission using two key criteria. To this end, we ask our new students each year when they apply about their socioeconomic background and whether they would recommend our ISA to their friends. Our central criteria are the level of education and the immigrant background of the parents. The numbers of 2022 are not entirely comparable with those from previous years, as we have changed the annual survey period in 2021 and separated it from the calendar year: We now record new entrants from November of the previous year to October of the following year. For two reasons: One, this period corresponds to the semester start at the universities and, two, to present this impact data at the end of each year.
382 new funded students
41 % female
56 % male
3 % divers
Results
We signed a total of 382 new ISA contracts from November 2021 to October 2022 (previous year 2021: 349); 56 percent of these were with men, 41 percent with women, and 3 percent with people of other genders. In 2021, it was the other way around for men and women: 57 percent with female and only 41 percent with male students. This result is probably due to chance, especially since the number of students we finance is still manageable in relation to the total number of university entrants, which is just under half a million young people.
Educational background of parents
Based on the new ISA contracts, 53 percent of our students come from so-called non-academic households (neither parent has an academic degree). For the first time, this figure is slightly higher than the German average of 52 percent, which is a pleasing development for us. At this point, we do not want to conceal the fact that we had not reached this benchmark in previous years, for example only 43 percent in 2020. The reason for this is probably that, due to our history, we had previously mainly financed students at private universities, where the proportion of non-academic children is likely to be significantly lower than the average. Since the beginning of the year, we have been offering our “financing of living expenses” product to students at all – and therefore also public universities. In this respect, it is not surprising that the proportion of financed children from non-academic households is rising; and we expect this figure to continue to rise.
Migration background
It is also important to us to encourage young people with a migration background (i.e. place of birth of parents or students abroad). Here, we have been above the average for all students, with rates of 51 percent at last count.
BAföG entitlement
BAföG and ISA: We are often asked whether we would keep students from getting this – only partially repayable – government aid when they sign an ISA with us and thus rather harm the students. But as the numbers show, this is not the case: 16 percent of our students are eligible for the state subsidy (previous year 13 percent, in 2020 even 39 percent). This puts us above the national average of 11 percent of all students who receive BAföG. We are pleased about this – it is simply advantageous for the students!
Recommendation of the ISA
Lastly, we want to know how new students’ experience the application process and whether they would recommend the ISA to their friends. After two years in which our Net Promoter Score dropped somewhat, we are pleased to report that 95 percent of our new students would recommend our services to their friends. We see this as a signal to keep on making the application process as simple as possible for the students as well as for us.
