Not enough applicants for women-only senior academic roles despite seven Irish universities with women presidents

Not enough applicants are coming forward to fill women-only senior academic leadership roles.

Ireland has suddenly become a world leader in the number of female university presidents appointed, but achieving full gender balance at senior levels in higher education has met a difficulty.

A Government initiative to ensure gender equity at the highest levels of the third-level sector has, so far, created 30 posts, but they are not all filled.

Maynooth University president, Professor Eeva Leinonen today lauded the women-only Senior Academic Leadership Initiative (SALI), and former Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor who sponsored it through Government in 2019.

But she said that “one challenge we have” is recruiting, as that there were not enough women in the pipeline.

She said it was reflective of females’ role in society and, in some cases, “having partners or husbands who were not always in a position to relocate” .

But Prof Leinonen said they were “determined to make the most of” of SALI adding: “Give it a few more years and we will be able to look at the impact”.

The Finnish-native, who took up the role in 2021, was hosting an historic event at Maynooth University, featuring female university presidents in Ireland, ahead of International Women’s Day.

Professor Leinonen said the event came at a pivotal time in Ireland's changing landscape of higher education.

She said universities of the future needed “a diversity of perspectives, missions and leaders.”

“We must not stand still; further concerted efforts are required to empower women of all backgrounds across leadership positions.”

Other female presidents participating in a panel discussion included Prof Veronica Campbell, South East Technological University; Prof Maggie Cusack, Munster Technological University; Dr Linda Doyle, Provost Trinity College Dublin; Dr Orla Flynn, Atlantic Technological University and Prof Kerstin Mey, University of Limerick.

They congratulated Prof Orla Feely, recently named as the new president of University College Dublin, who will take up office in May

From having no female university president in 2019, four of the seven traditional universities now have a woman in charge, while three of the five technological universities also have female presidents.

The speed of the transformation has put Ireland well ahead of the international average. Data released today shows nearly a quarter, 48, of the world’s top 200 universities, have female presidents or vice-chancellors, up from 43 last year.

There are 12pc more women in these positions than last year and 41pc more than five years ago, according to the UK-based Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2023.

For the first time, four out of the top five universities in the world: Oxford, Harvard, Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will see a woman in the top job by July this year.

Opening the event at Maynooth University , Further and Higher Education Minister Simon Harris noted that there were now seven female presidents and they represented a diversity of nationality, experiences, and disciplines.

“It’s a powerful statement about the progress made towards gender equality in higher education. But there is much more to do," he said.