Record number of PhD graduates at universities

Dutch universities awarded 5,595 PhDs over the last academic year – more than ever before. Women have maintained their lead over men.

In the 1990s, almost all dissertations were written by men. That has gradually changed, with more and more PhDs going to women.

The turning point came in the 2020/2021 academic year, when, for the first time, more women than men earned their PhDs. Over the past two years, women have pulled ahead: 52% of new PhD holders are female.

In healthcare-related PhDs in particular, women outnumber men. However, men still outnumber them in mathematics, natural sciences, and engineering.

That’s also the case at TU Delft. According to Graduate School records, 448 PhD defences were don there last year – ‘a record year indeed’. Of these, 149 were women, while 299 were men.

The number of PhD graduates has been rising since 2009. At the time, then-Minister of Education Ronald Plasterk raised the ‘PhD bonus’, making it more financially attractive for faculties to guide PhD candidates to completion. That bonus now stands at around EUR 80,000 per approved dissertation.

HOP, Bas Belleman