IRELAND

Universities to be penalised for gender inequality
The national review of gender equality in higher education, which was done by the Expert Group and commissioned by the Higher Education Authority, outlined the need for a greater gender balance of staff, and higher education institutions will risk funds being withdrawn if they pay no heed, writes Marése O’Sullivan for UTV.It recommended that mandatory quotas should be introduced for academic promotion, with the final pool of candidates for positions – as far as possible – comprising an equal split of men and women; that a vice-president for equality be appointed at each institution; and that any applicant for president must have “demonstrable experience of leadership in advancing gender equality”.
The CEO of the Higher Education Authority, Tom Boland, added: “While the institutions have, to varying degrees, sought to address gender inequality in the past, the intractable under-representation of women among staff at senior levels clearly signals the need for new, even radical, approaches to tackling this issue.
Full report on the UTV site