It is not currently permitted, but it should be: reserving study places specifically for women in a popular engineering program because they are underrepresented.

That is the conclusion of an advisory opinion issued by the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, the body that rules on issues related to discrimination and racism. According to the institute, the Minister of Education should amend the relevant regulations to make such measures possible.

Study environment

TU Delft asked the institute for guidance: would it be permissible to implement a preferential admissions policy for women in its highly competitive Aerospace Engineering program? Could 30 percent of available places be reserved for female applicants?

Such a policy constitutes direct discrimination on the basis of sex and is therefore allowed only under exceptional circumstances.

According to the university, increasing the number of women in the program would improve the “study environment,” as current female students often encounter “gender stereotyping” — in other words, prejudice and sexist jokes. The university argues that this may change if women make up a larger share of the student population. Another potential benefit is that, over time, more women may join the academic staff as faculty members.

In recent years, women have accounted for only about 20 percent of incoming students. The program considers this figure too low, given the number of female secondary-school students who have the required academic background.

Selection still required

Under the proposed policy, women would still have to complete the regular admissions process. The preference would apply only when candidates are equally qualified. In other words, if a male and a female applicant are assessed as equally suitable, the female applicant would be given priority. The institute sees no objection to such an approach.

Two years ago, TU Delft’s Aerospace Engineering program was prevented from introducing a similar preferential policy for women. At the time, the Dutch Inspectorate of Education stated that such a measure was not permitted under existing law. The Human Rights Institute has now reached a different conclusion.

However, the policy would need to be carefully regulated, including within the framework of educational oversight. The institute recommends that the Minister of Education investigate how preferential policies could be made possible “within the current legal framework.”

If the minister follows this recommendation, it could have far-reaching consequences. Educational programs might then be able to implement preferential policies more frequently for underrepresented groups. These could include women, but potentially also students with non-Western migration backgrounds or students whose parents did not attend higher education.

The debate over preferential policies has also played out at TU/e in the recruitment of academic staff. In 2019, the university introduced the Irène Curie Fellowship (ICF) program to increase the representation of women among its researchers. Under the program, female candidates were temporarily given priority in recruitment procedures for certain vacancies.

The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights later ruled that the original version of the program was disproportionate, after which the scheme was revised. In its amended form, the program was allowed to continue.

An evaluation published in 2024 showed that the policy has had a measurable impact: the recruitment of male and female researchers is now roughly balanced at 50/50, and the share of female academic staff has increased from 22 percent to nearly 30 percent over a five-year period. To further strengthen the diversity of its academic staff, the university decided in 2024 to extend the ICF program for another five years.

This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor