Gender and Merit in Awarding Cum Laude for the PhD Thesis

In the Dutch academic system, PhD theses can be awarded with 'Cum Laude', and only some 5% of all PhD graduates receive this selective award. In this paper, we investigate whether there is gender bias in awarding cum laude, using data from a major Dutch research university. We measure the quality of the PhD thesis using bibliometric data. A main result is that the set of PhD theses receiving cum laude do on average not have a higher quality than the best theses not getting cum laude. A second main result is that, after controlling for the quality of the PhD thesis, women have a substantially lower probability to be granted cum laude. These results strongly suggest that the distribution of awards may contribute to gender bias. These findings lead to a strong doubt about the adequacy of the procedures leading to awarding cum laude for the PhD thesis.