Senior women in higher education mark International Women’s Day with reflections on sector progress

To mark International Women’s Day, we are shining a spotlight on some of the female leaders working in UK higher education.

The world-leading reputation that UK higher education enjoys would not have been possible without the role played by women in the sector and we are now taking the opportunity to hear from some of those individuals.   

Reflecting on their own experiences, how far the sector has come in supporting women and what is still left to do, we are sharing some of the perspectives of those in senior positions across UK higher education.

Dr Harriet Dunbar-Morris, Dean of Teaching and Learning at the University of Portsmouth:

‘Higher education is a diverse community which brings together staff and students from many countries and backgrounds. Much effort is expended in ensuring that it is a welcoming community that enables a sense of belonging for all in our learning and teaching practices. This is often led by senior female leaders. I have been privileged to work in organisations that have or had female vice-chancellors and chief executives, for example Shirley Congdon at Bradford, Mary Curnock Cook at UCAS, and Louise Richardson at Oxford. The UK is one of the countries with high numbers of female-led institutions. But there is still some way to go. 

‘Being a professor is usually a prerequisite to becoming a vice-chancellor, a pro-vice-chancellor or a dean, but in 2022 just 25% of the professoriate were women. A statistic that calls for further action if more women are going to fully belong to the academic community and ascend to senior leadership. What can we do about it? One thing I would recommend is the ‘Profs in Prep’ academic community of practice which supports individuals considering or preparing for promotion, with a focus on non-research focused pathways, led by Professors Julie Hulme and Deborah Locke.’

Professor Becky Huxley-Binns, Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Hull:

‘I was appointed Professor of Legal Education in 2013, 10 years ago, when I was at Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University. I am now Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Education at the University of Hull. I would not have become a professor and subsequently a PVC without the mentorship of senior women leaders in HE. I was supported, challenged and advised about my career by senior women leaders for several years before I attained chair, and since, up to and including today.

‘It is important for senior women leaders to offer mentorship. To pay it back. And then, to pay it forward. If every senior women leader in higher education, offered at least three mentorships, can you imagine what position we will be in in another 10 years?’

Dr Sal Jarvis, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Westminster:

‘In the early 1990s I was a primary school teaching assistant with three small children, thinking about training to become a primary teacher. Now I am Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Westminster. Reflecting on my journey from one to the other I am proud of what I have achieved, but I know that luck, privilege and sometimes prejudice all enabled my progress.

“I was lucky in that I was always passionate about education leadership: prejudice and stereotyping means that women disproportionately pick up the ‘grunt work’ in higher education, and student experience leadership roles seem to fall too often into that particular box. Other areas are less open. In 2020, HESA statistics showed only 28% of professors in the UK were women.

“And I am white, and middle class. It is hard to know the impact of that privilege, but my journey was supported several informal sponsors; and I was brought up in a community that told me I had a voice, and an entitlement to be heard. Would those things have been the same if I belonged to a more marginalised or disadvantaged part of the community? Perhaps not.

“It is fabulous to see more women progressing in higher education, but we need to widen opportunities beyond the traditional siloes, and we need to pay more attention to intersectionalities.’

Dr Zainab Khan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching & Learning) at London Metropolitan University:

‘The theme of this year’s IWD is ‘Embrace Equity’. The road to equity is long with much distance left to travel. I find it difficult to celebrate advancements in women’s equality when, looking across the sector, things aren’t moving quickly enough for ALL women. Trans women face a torrent of hate, disabled and older women frequently experience being treated as invisible, and the majority of ethnic minority women are subject to discrimination at every point of their career. 14% of undergraduate students in UK HE are British Pakistani like me (Advance HE 2022) and most of them won’t ever get to see themselves reflected in their teaching staff or leadership.

‘As a new PVC in 2019 I was immediately struck by the lack of ethnic minority women in similar posts. I set up a network for other senior women of colour which I now co-chair. At present, there are around 20 of us who occupy executive leadership roles in UK institutions. Each and every one is incredible and I am very fortunate to know them. 

‘Finally, academic leaders are often celebrated so this IWD I salute all the incredible women in London Met’s student and central services for their unrivalled dedication to students and the advancement of education for social justice.’

Professor Clare Peddie, Vice-Principal Education (Proctor) at the University of St Andrews:

‘My experience in higher education has been a life of happy and positive progression through perceived and real challenges which have been inextricably linked to the intersectionality between my personal circumstances (a mother, a farmer’s wife), my academic discipline (a marine biologist), my chosen career (an education-focused academic), and my gender (female) from which it is difficult to disaggregate the impact of my gender. However, I can state that the first of these circumstances, happily limiting my mobility, was a significant factor in making the positive decision to move my working life to teaching in higher education.

‘My first permanent position as a teaching fellow involved joining a school where male academics outnumbered female academics by a factor of ten. Something I was remarkably untroubled by. Since then, I have experienced several lucky firsts. First to be promoted to Professor on a new education-focused career pathway dominated by women, first female Head of School in my discipline, and now the first person on the education-focused route to join the Senior Management team. Women in higher education still need to support each other to help reduce our dependency on luck, to support our progression, and increase the fair recognition of our evident skills and leadership.’

From everyone at QAA, happy International Women’s Day!