Sex divide warning on top varsity jobs

EDUCATION: A lack of women in leadership roles in universities across the UK is detrimental to the higher education divide, senior university leaders have warned the Government.

The WomenCount charity said appointments of women to senior university roles “fall short”.

A LACK of women in leadership roles in universities across the UK is detrimental to the higher education divide, senior university leaders have warned the Government.

The WomenCount charity, an initiative focused on women’s participation in higher education, the third sector and public bodies, said appointments of women to senior university roles “falls short”.

There are now calls for action to be taken on dismantling the professorial roadblock to women moving up the career ladder.

In the organisation’s Leaders in Higher Education 2019 report, it showed women are just 29 per cent of all vice-chancellors, 37 per cent of all executive team members and 31 per cent of heads in the top tier of the academic structure.

Professor Shirley Congdon, the first female Vice-Chancellor for the University of Bradford and a leading voice for universities for the Leeds City Region’s Local Enterprise

Partnership, said support needed to be provided to aid more women into senior roles to help improve diversity and inclusion across the sector.

Professor Congdon said: “Definitely more support needs to be given. It does feel sometimes that people can go ‘wow really a woman has got to that position’, and it shouldn’t be a big deal because we are quite capable and confident.”

Reflecting on her appointment last summer as the first female to take the leader role at the university since it was founded in 1966, she said: “I don’t feel I have achieved something exceptional, but when you look at the numbers of women in senior positions clearly I am in the minority.”

Becoming a professor is usually a prerequisite to becoming a vice-chancellor, a pro vice-chancellor or a dean, but according to the Leaders in Higher Education 2019 report, women are less than 25 per cent of all professors.

Dr Peter O’Brien, the executive director of the Yorkshire Universities charity, which represents 12 institutes across the region, said that Yorkshire is at the forefront of leading the way for advocating female equality in the sector with five female vice-chancellors currently in post.

However, he stressed more needs to be done to tackle the gender inequalities in higher education, and “level-up” the disproportionate number of women currently in leadership roles.

The Government admitted that more needs to be done to improve the number of women in leadership positions in higher education.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “While there has been some improvement in the number of women in leadership positions in higher education, there is clearly much more to be done to ensure universities are representative of the students and communities they serve.”

It shouldn’t be a big deal because we are quite capable and confident.

Professor Shirley Congdon, the first female vice-chancellor for the University of Bradford.