Students with an ethnic minority background have to write more letters to find an internship than their native Dutch peers and earn less while on work experience programmes, according to the eighth national internship monitor.

In total, 1,700 students took part in the monitor, which is compiled by internship website StudentenBureau.

The results of the survey show 52% of ethnic minority students have to write at least six letters to find a placement, compared with 38% of the native Dutch. They also earn an average of €14 a month less and score 0.3 percentage point lower in their final assessment.

‘It is really regrettable that your name and the way you look still has an influence in 2015,’ the bureau’s director Laurens Simonse told Metro news. ‘But many companies are still unwilling to give minority students a chance or operate different standards.’

The survey defined someone as an ethnic minority if at least one of their parents was born abroad.

Pay

The survey also showed one in five students was not paid at all during their internship. The average payment is €275 a month, a €10 rise on 2014.

The best paid internships are in the IT sector, where the average income is €356. The worst paid interns are in the healthcare sector, where the compensation averages just €131 a month.

The sector by sector differences may explain the difference in wages between male and female interns. The average male intern was paid €324 a month, while women earned €248.

The survey also showed 43% of interns were offered a job by their employer at the end of their work experience placement and just over half of them accepted the deal.