Preferential policy for female first years at AE not permitted

On Thursday afternoon 14 March, the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering (AE) informed all staff members, students and prospective students that the preferential policy for female first year students will not go ahead as planned. The Faculty had intended to select 30% female students from this academic year onwards. The average percentage of female students admitted usually is under 20%. To address this imbalance, the Faculty took the decision at the start of 2024 to introduce a preferential policy.

However, the Faculty reports that the Inspectorate of Education informed TU Delft by email and telephone that this would contravene the Higher Education and Research Act. A spokesperson at the Inspectorate confirms this. The Inspectorate came into action after media coverage of the controversial plan to introduce a women’s quota, he says. “We then looked into it and came to the conclusion that the law does not permit preference either being given or denied to certain groups.”

Discussion in society

The spokesperson goes on to say that the Inspectorate understands AE’s need to create a greater gender balance in the degree programme. “The question is what measures may you take.” He believes that the commotion (in Dutch) that the AE’s plan brought about when it was made known shows that a societal discussion on the subject first needs to take place and then, if need be, the law changed before a gender preference policy can be introduced.

AE announced that it will still ‘continue working towards a more inclusive and diverse learning environment for our students’. A TU Delft spokesperson wrote that ‘We will shortly contact the Ministry to discuss what we can do to promote equal opportunities in higher education’.

Disappointed

The Director of Education at AE, Joris Melkert, is disappointed that his plan has to be shelved. “We have spent years thinking about how to increase the number of women.” In an interview in the Volkskrant newspaper, Melkert said (in Dutch) that TU Delft lawyers had determined that a preferential policy would be permitted. He now says that the Legal Department ‘still sees options’ to address the situation. This may involve taking action in regulations for experiments.

This will have no impact on the students who have applied for the 2024-2025 academic year. They will be subject to the current selection rules.

In the meantime, Melkert is hoping for the new Cabinet to bring about change. He refers to a letter to the House of Representatives from the outgoing Minister of Education, Robbert Dijkgraaf, who wrote: ‘Whether we permit a preferential policy in the selection criteria and what this entails in the future is up to the new Cabinet.’