Record number of women awarded PhDs by universities

It happened once before that more women than men completed their PhDs at Dutch universities. This was in 2020/2021 and the difference back then was a mere five PhDs.

Last academic year, 2,651 women were awarded PhDs, which is a record number. Even in the peak year 2020/2021, when PhD candidates in the medical sciences in particular caught up after falling behind due to the Cpvid-19 pandemic, there weren’t this many women who obtained a PhD.

The number of PhDs completed is still increasing. Last year, there were more than five thousand, owing to healthcare in particular: the medical sciences, pharmacy and similar disciplines accounted for over 2,100 of the PhDs awarded. Of these, 1,325 went to women.