Education Minister Letschert rejects TU Delft quota for women in aerospace engineering
Education Minister Rianne Letschert will not, for now, let TU Delft reserve places for women, because the ministry thinks the law change a quota needs goes too far.
TU Delft may not introduce a quota for female students for now. Education Minister Rianne Letschert is not following the advice of the College voor de Rechten van de Mens, the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, to make a quota possible, the Ministry of Education has confirmed.
The decision is a setback for the aerospace engineering programme at TU Delft, which wants at least 30% of its places to go to women.
The ministry says it shares the goal of getting more women into technical education. But a quota would need an amendment to the higher education law to allow preferential treatment based on personal characteristics. For now, the ministry considers that too far-reaching, and the minister does not want to make the change.
In June the institute ruled that a quota is a suitable and permitted measure to achieve equality between men and women. It said that, if strict conditions are met, such a policy is an effective way to do so, and referred, among other things, to the UN Women’s Convention.
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College voor de Rechten van de Mens
The College voor de Rechten van de Mens is the Netherlands' independent national human rights institute. It monitors compliance with human rights treaties, advises the government and parliament on human rights matters, and assesses whether a distinction between groups amounts to unequal treatment or discrimination. Its opinions on equal treatment are not legally binding, but they carry weight in public and political debate.