University of Twente drops cum laude distinction from Ph.D. over gender inequality
From January 1, the University of Twente will no longer use the cum laude distinction for doctorates. According to the university, the cum laude designation, awarded to dissertations of exceptional quality, “systematically disadvantages” female Ph.D. candidates.
“This distinction was intended to recognize exceptional scientific quality, but in practice, it appears not to be based on objective standards and systematically disadvantages female Ph.D. candidates,” the university wrote on its website. “Therefore, the decision was made to abolish the regulation.”
Rector magnificus Tom Veldkamp cited several scientific articles to justify the removal in the university’s internal announcement, the university magazine U-Today reported.
One was a 2023 study from the University of Amsterdam, in which researcher Thijs Bol showed that a male researcher is almost twice as likely to obtain a cum laude doctorate as a female researcher, even if they share the same reviewer.
The study examined 5,239 Dutch researchers who obtained their doctorates cum laude between 2011 and 2021. The gender gap was greatest when the assessment committee consisted solely of men. According to the researcher, this suggests that male reviewers give preference to male candidates.
