In the course ‘Theory Construction: Anthropologists and Sociologists on Religion’, two lectures were dedicated to the work of Emile Durkheim. More specifically, the focus was on his work The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, first published in French in 1912 as Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse: Le système totémique en Australie. Ad Borsboom devoted one lecture to the totemic principle; in the second lecture I focused on the sociological aspects of Durkheim's work. My lecture started with Durkheim's definition of religion as ‘a unified system of beliefs and practices […] which unite into one single moral community’, to ultimately arrive at the conclusion that the true purpose of religion is social. Religion serves as the carrier of social sentiments, and, most importantly, offers rituals that tie individuals to their community.

In the closing discussion, I habitually confronted the students with Durkheim's remark that in his day and age the old gods were growing old or had already dead, while others had not yet been born. I questioned my students about what new gods might have been born and what new religion might have emerged since Durkheim published his book. Furthermore, I quizzed them on what this new religion would consider sacred and which rituals would be part of this religion. Almost every single year, there was at least one student who answered that the new religion might be based on the sanctity of knowledge, with universities serving as places of worship and in which tutorials could be viewed as the most important rituals. In this contribution, I will proceed from the idea that rituals create bonds between individuals and their social group, and that during rituals the norms of the group are imprinted in the minds of the individuals. I will do this by examining the academic consequences of participation of students in ‘college-rituals’, the tutorial.

In Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition, Vincent Tinto offers a theory that explains student attrition from institutions of higher education. Building on the work of Van Gennep and Durkheim, a central element of his theory is the concept of social integration. It emphasizes the experiences and processes of integration and their impact on student retention and college persistence. The so-called Amsterdam model of educational careers combines insights from Tinto's work with economic theories.