Almost one in two women experiences inappropriate behaviour during their PhD programme
More than a third of recent PhD graduates in the Netherlands experienced inappropriate behaviour during their PhD programme. This is according to figures from Statistics Netherlands. Women are more likely to experience inappropriate behaviour than men. At the University of Amsterdam, more than a quarter of PhD students face this problem.
Almost 44 per cent of female PhD candidates experience inappropriate behaviour during their PhD programme. This includes bullying and discrimination, verbal aggression, threats, (sexual) harassment and physical aggression. Overall, 35 per cent of researchers who obtained their PhDs in the past ten years experienced inappropriate behaviour during their PhD programme, with bullying and discrimination being the most common forms.
This is evident from figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) (In Dutch known as the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek), based on surveys of Dutch universities and the PhD Graduates Survey. In this five-yearly survey, the CBS asks recent PhD graduates to reflect on their PhD project and their role in the labour market.
The fact that such inappropriate behaviour – which was measured for the first time last year – is so prevalent makes the figures “really very worrying”, says Martijn van der Meer, chair of the Dutch PhD Network, in a response. “Almost one in two women and a quarter of men experience inappropriate behaviour. That is a lot.”
However, the figures from Statistics Netherlands also show that PhD graduates look back on their PhD journey with satisfaction. Last year, that assessment was slightly less positive than five years ago. Nevertheless, 92 per cent of men still indicated they were satisfied with the PhD journey, compared to 88 per cent of women.
Inappropriate behaviour at the UvA
At the UvA, PhD candidates are less likely to encounter inappropriate behaviour, according to the 2024 PhD Candidate Survey by the Central PhD Council (CPC). This shows that 27 per cent of respondents experience inappropriate behaviour, a similar percentage to two years prior. In three-quarters of cases, it is women who experience inappropriate behaviour, although this gives a somewhat distorted picture, as the majority of respondents (68 per cent) who completed the survey were women.
Recently, the 2024–25 Student Social Safety Monitor revealed that UvA students are increasingly experiencing inappropriate behaviour at the university. These percentages varied depending on the form of inappropriate behaviour. Thirteen per cent of students reported facing discrimination, and 11 per cent cited bullying and psychological abuse.
