Diversity in student intake

Regular ranking procedure for academic year 2024/2025

For students starting their BSc Aerospace Engineering in September 2024 the regular ranking procedure will be used without diversity measures.

In January 2024, after much weighing up the pros and cons, we communicated about the introduction of a diversity policy in the ranking procedure for the BSc Aerospace Engineering. By reserving 132 out of 440 available study places for qualified female students, we wanted to increase the percentage of female students in the BSc Aerospace Engineering from 20% to 30%. A better gender balance is important for the inclusive and diverse learning environment we want to offer to our students.

However, the Ministry of Education has since informed us not to implement the policy as it is currently not legally possible. We will therefore currently not implement the new policy. TU Delft will stay fully committed to working on a more inclusive and diverse learning environment for our students and we will reach out to the Ministry shortly to discuss how to proceed with equal opportunity measures in higher education.

Pending our discussions with the Ministry, however, we want to be clear and consistent about our ranking procedure and that’s why we’ve decided not implement it this year.

The importance of gender diversity

If you study Aerospace Engineering at TU Delft, we will train you to become a true Delft engineer: a proactive, critical and optimistic problem-solver at the heart of society. With us, you will learn all about the technical side of the field and practice your technical skills. What is very important to us is that in Delft, you will find yourself in a diverse and inspiring learning environment in which you will develop into a critical thinker who makes a positive and responsible contribution to a better - and more sustainable - world. A large part of your curriculum therefore consists of project work in which you work together in diverse teams on assignments.

At Aerospace Engineering, with more than 60 nationalities, we are already incredibly international and multicultural. All project groups include students of different nationalities and cultures. For a more balanced distribution between male and female students, we were planning to take an extra step. In a diversity policy starting from academic year 2024-2025, we chose to reserve 132 of the 440 available study places for female students from the group of qualified applicants. This would have allowed us to increase the proportion of female students in the BSc Aerospace Engineering to 30%. This percentage is no coincidence. It's based on (inter)national laws on women in business leadership, on the idea that a minority of 30% has critical mass and for us it also means that there is a good gender balance in all project groups. All students can then benefit from the experience of learning to work together in an even more diverse team.

For the students currently in the selection procedure for the academic year 2024/2025 the regular ranking procedure will be used without the diversity measure. Through this website, we  will keep prospective students who want to start in September 2025 up to date on any possible changes.