Students with an ethnic minority background are four times as likely to study to become a pharmacist than native white students but are unlikely to take a degree course in Dutch, journalism or veterinary science, RTL news said on Friday.

In total, 36% of the 675 university and college places to study pharmacy last year were taken by people from an ethnic minority, RTL said. The broadcaster bases its claims on an analysis of statistics compiled by the CBS.

Dentistry,  tax law, social work and economics are also popular with ethnic minority students, RTL said. For example, one in five law students comes from an ethnic minority as do almost three in 10 students studying dentistry.

Robert Tholen of research institute Researchned said ethnic minority students – and women in particular – consider social status and a high salary more important than the ethnic Dutch, hence their choice of career.

The research also showed journalism, veterinary science and nursing are out of favour as subjects in general, while mechanical engineering and biotechnology are growing sharply.

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