Diversity

Today, during lunch, I attended a presentation on the diversity policy of TU Delft, and here’s a quick overview of what struck me most:

– Even though the Netherlands is one of the most progressive and developed countries around, it has among the lowest percentages of female professors in the European Union (Belgium was even one place lower in that ranking).

– There was a lot of information on the Delft Fellowship for female academics, in an attempt to attract talented researched. It’s aimed at researchers who have spent a few years in industry or as a post-doc, outside of the TU Delft. And this “outside of the TU Delft” seems to stir quite some discussion (should we give our research positions to foreigners?). And do we even need a fellowship which is only for women?

– Who reaches the top? White, male, Dutch academics who studied at TU Delft.

I still need to think about these issues, put it all into the context of my personal experience, and then I’ll have an opinion on it. But as of now, I just find it an interesting topic.