Introduction Higher Education (HE) can foster upward mobility, but can also reproduce inequities, including in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. We propose that a key mechanism of inequities is the institutional preference for sameness. Methods Using focus group data from students (n students = 26) and teachers (n teachers = 9) at a Dutch STEM university, we examined what localized sameness looks like and how its reproductions are individually and interpersonally negotiated. Results and Discussion We observed how narrow notions of STEM professionalism are informed by interacting social axes of language, culture, masculinity, and racialization, ultimately creating tensions between students and teachers under institutional pressures. We examined how STEM education in this context reinforces an academic prototype prioritizing task-focused, impartial scientists, detached from social realities. The prototype is reinforced by a depersonalization of education and a lack of language to critically discuss inequities, ultimately marginalizing those who do not, or cannot, approximate this prototype.
Wong et al. (2026) studied this question.