Bid to give female professors even break

FUNDING for 15 female professor posts has been approved as the authorities struggle to end the inequality at the top at our third-level institutions.

However, recruitment will not begin until next year, and it is envisioned the posts will only be filled in 12 months’ time.

The posts include chair of cyber security at Cork Institute of Technology, plus professor in computer science and professor of plasma physics in Dublin City University.

The move follows a damning report by the Higher Education Authority in 2018, which found that only 24% of high-level professor posts in universities were held by women, even though they made up 51% of lecturers.

Earlier this year, Professor Kerstin Mey became the first female university president in more than 400 years of higher education in Ireland, when she took on the role at the University of Limerick.

The new posts are part of the Government’s Senior Academic Leadership Initiative launched last year. Under the scheme, 45 senior academic leadership roles will be awarded to women at third level institutes over three years.

The 2018 Gender Equality Taskforce Action Plan found that it could take up to 20 years for women to make up just 40% of professors in the university sector, unless measures were taken to correct the balance.

The extra cost for the posts will be €1.5million this year, growing to €4million next year.

Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has approved the posts, saying it will be a ‘real game-changer’ for the sector.