Twente University has scrapped the predicate “with distinction” or cum laude for PhD doctoral theses because it is “not based on objective criteria and it is systematically denied to women”, the university said in a regulation update.

Tom Veldkamp, dean at the university, said the decision had been made based on several research papers, including one by the University of Amsterdam from 2023.

Researcher Thijs Bol examined 5,000 cases in which the quality of the work warranted the predicate cum laude and concluded that women were twice as likely to be denied the honour. The gap between men and women was at its widest when the judges were all men, he found.

Just 5% of all PhD students in the Netherlands qualify cum laude. Universities all have their own rules on what constitutes scientific excellence.