Nearly half of female PhD candidates experience inappropriate behaviour

A particularly large number of female PhD candidates encounter inappropriate behaviour, according to new figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS). “This is very concerning”, says the Dutch PhD Network.

How do researchers fare once they have obtained their doctoral degree? How do they look back on their PhD and what have they experienced? Statistics Netherlands asked them.

Of recently graduated women, 44 percent say they experienced inappropriate behaviour during their PhD trajectory. Among men, this percentage is lower: 26 percent.

What exactly did they experience? Bullying, discrimination and intimidation occur. One in ten women faced sexual harassment.

The perpetrator may be a professor, but also a fellow PhD candidate or someone the PhD candidate ‘came into contact with due to the PhD trajectory’. The figures do not provide further detail on this.

Concerning

“This is very concerning”, says chair Martijn van der Meer of the Dutch PhD Network. “Nearly one in two women and a quarter of men experience inappropriate behaviour. That is a lot.”

According to him, it shows that all the attention to social safety in higher education and research is justified. For example, he welcomes the Social Safety programme, through which funding can be obtained for strong initiatives in this area.

Work pressure

In addition, work pressure has increased in recent years. The CBS has no earlier figures on misconduct, but it does on work pressure. In 2019, Statistics Netherlands also conducted a survey among PhD graduates.

In 2019, 60 percent said the work pressure was high or very high. In the 2025 survey, this has risen to 68 percent. Among women (72 percent), this work pressure is higher than among men (63 percent).

Van der Meer is disappointed: “Over the past five years, there has been a lot of attention to work pressure. Yet we see no decrease, but an increase.”

Satisfied

Despite the problems, 86 percent of recent PhD graduates look back on the trajectory with general satisfaction. In 2019, the assessment was more favourable: at that time, 93 percent were satisfied afterwards. Men are slightly more positive than women, but the difference is small.