TU Delft cleared to reserve aerospace places for women

TU Delft can reserve 30% of the places on its aerospace engineering degree for women, the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, a national equal-treatment watchdog, has ruled, reviving a scheme the education inspectorate forced the university to drop two years ago.

The institute found on Monday that setting aside 132 of the 440 first-year places for female applicants did not amount to prohibited discrimination. Women would still have to pass the same selection as men, with no automatic priority.

Female enrolment on the course has sat at around 20% for years, which the university says skews the study climate and feeds gender stereotyping.

But the ruling clears the policy only under equal-treatment law. A separate law, the Higher Education and Research Act (WHW), still bars universities from favouring applicants by gender at admission, the same objection the inspectorate raised in 2024.

The institute has asked education minister Rianne Letschert to look at how the policy could be made to fit the law. TU Delft wants to introduce it for the 2027/2028 intake and will discuss it with the ministry.

The reservation will not apply to this year’s new students, who include Princess Ariane, the youngest daughter of king Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima. She passed the selection and starts the course after the summer.