Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs (DUO) gave students a risk score to check for misuse of the living away grant. A number of students were given a higher risk score without proper justification. DUO also failed to evaluate the functioning of the algorithm.
The criteria used for DUO's home visit algorithm were type of education, distance and age. A mbo education, a shorter distance between the student's home address and the parent(s) and a lower age all resulted in a higher risk score. This algorithm also led to indirect discrimination, the OCW minister concluded based on research. Students from non-European migration backgrounds scored higher on the selection criteria used.
"Unfortunately, discrimination is still far from being properly recognized. Because it is often thought that discrimination is about origin, sexual preference or religion, for example. But do you distinguish between people in other ways without justification? Then that is just as much discrimination and therefore prohibited. DUO also initially overlooked this. Although DUO did not register the migration background of students, it did register other data to make a distinction. And there was no objective justification for that either," said Aleid Wolfsen.
