12 vacancies for female science talent
About a quarter of all Tilburg University professors is female. To increase this number, Tilburg University has the Philip Eijlander Diversity Program. For that purpose, twelve job vacancies have been put up on the website.Women that are hired, are appointed for five years. On the special web page, you can read that they also get a start-up budget of 10.000 euros and they can enroll in the Tracks mentoring program. There’s support during pregnancy. For example, the university can find replacement for four months of teaching, to make up for lost research time.
The vacancies are not just for any woman, says the university. It is a search for ‘real talent’. If none of the respondents fit that description, the vacancies are not filled.
Criticism
Last month, during a Executive Committee meeting, criticism was voiced about the program. The supposed cultural problem that causes the differences would not be solved by this program. The Executive Board acknowledges this, but speaks of a flywheel effect. “Of course we cannot change the whole organisation in one go, but you can see that we trigger something.”