The Leaders in Higher Education report published by WomenCount today finds that women’s share of Chairs of Governing bodies and Vice Chancellor roles have improved since their previous report in 2013.
Advance HE and the Committee of University Chairs (CUC) launched the new board vacancies portal in collaboration with the Association of Heads of University Administration and the 30% Club. The WomenCount report found that 76% of appointments for Vice-Chancellor were externally recruited but there were 12 internal appointments made, of which six of were permanent appointments and six were interim appointments. All the permanent appointees were male and all the interim appointees were male, except for one woman. The aim of the Advance HE board vacancies portal is to create greater diversity of applicants by making appointments more accessible and visible.
Jenny Tester, Advance HE’s Project Associate, said:
“It is great to see that progress has been made towards gender equality in higher education leadership. In order to address gender inequality it is important that HEP’s are able to attract and retain diverse talent to senior roles. The board diversification project brings together a series of related, practical initiatives to support the sector to increase diversity within higher education boards. One of these strands is the Board vacancies portal, designed to provide a central platform to increase the transparency of board vacancies in the higher education sector.”
Download the WomenCount: Leaders in Higher Education 2018 report