Thanks to the Irène Curie Fellowship programme, the number of women hired at the university has increased significantly over the past five years. An evaluation of the programme shows that half of the academic staff hired at the university are now female.
Female staff increase
Initially, the ratio was that of the new staff members hired, 30 per cent were female and 70 per cent male. TU/e therefore initiated a policy to increase the proportion of women at the university.
After five years, that policy was evaluated. Conclusion: the programme paid off. The number of women in TU/e’s permanent academic staff rose from 134 to 208. Proportionally, the percentage of women increased from 22 to 29.
Change
Board chairman Robert-Jan Smits says he is happy with the results. “Thanks to this programme, we were able to attract a lot of top female talent from all over the world, we were able to take a big step forward in terms of the female-to-male ratio and the culture around diversity is noticeably changing. We are proud of that, and it has inspired other institutions to also come up with innovative plans.”
The next step is to ensure that all TU/e faculties separately achieve the 30 per cent, Smits says. “We will work hard on that in the next five years.”
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Anitha Sevugan
