Princess Ariane of the Netherlands begins aerospace engineering degree at TU Delft
Princess Ariane of the Netherlands, the 19-year-old daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima, has started her university studies in aeronautics and astronautics at Delft University of Technology (Hello!).
The Dutch Royal House, through its official information service — the Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst, the government body that handles communications for the monarchy — confirmed on 28 April 2026 that Princess Ariane would enrol in the bachelor's programme in Luchtvaart- en Ruimtevaarttechniek, the Dutch name for the aeronautics and astronautics track at TU Delft (Koninklijkhuis). The announcement came one day after King's Day, the national celebration of the monarch's birthday, when the princess first confirmed her plans publicly.
New photographs released by the Royal House show Ariane on her first day at the university, which was founded in 1842 in the city of Delft, west of Rotterdam. The household has stated that the time the princess spends studying is considered private, meaning her day-to-day life as a student will not be part of official royal coverage (Hello!).
Princess Ariane is third in line to the Dutch throne, behind her elder sister Princess Amalia and her father. Her choice of field places her in familiar territory for the family. King Willem-Alexander has held a private pilot's licence, Class II, for more than four decades and is known to fly KLM Cityhopper aircraft on a regular basis. The princess's late uncle, Prince Friso — the king's younger brother, who died in 2013 — built a career in the aerospace industry after studying mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley (Hello!).
Ariane's route to Delft was not a straight line. She completed her secondary education at United World College Adriatic, a boarding school in the town of Duino in north-east Italy, where she earned her International Baccalaureate in summer 2025 (Koninklijkhuis). She then took a gap year before settling on aerospace engineering as her path. Admission to the TU Delft programme involved a rigorous selection process, after which Ariane said in April: "I'm very happy, it's a great opportunity" (Hello!).
The choice of UWC Adriatic placed her at a school with roughly 180 students from more than 80 countries, part of the United World Colleges network founded in 1962 to bring together young people from different backgrounds. Her elder sister, Princess Amalia, the heir to the throne, has been studying at the University of Amsterdam since 2024.
For the Dutch public, the photographs and the brief household statement are likely to be the most visible part of Ariane's university years. The privacy designation means that, unlike official engagements — which appear in the Court Circular, the daily record of royal activities — her student life is off the public record by household convention.
