19th February 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Amid major concerns surrounding discrimination in the higher education system, ministers have been told that universities should set targets in order to boost the number of female academics. The University and College Union have completed research which testifies to the fact that women are under-represented among university professors.
Although women make up 47% of academic staff in the lower levels of UK higher education institutions, they represent a mere 20% of professors. Research also showed that in 23 universities more than four times as many men try to obtain professorial posts in comparison to women. Institutions are being called upon the ensure that they promote equal numbers of men and women in order to prevent what is being called a ‘terrible waste of talent’.
The UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, is worried that thousands of staff who are building up years of knowledge and experience through their positions in higher education, are never being allowed to realise their full potential. She even compared it to ‘athletes training to Olympic standard but never entering a Games’. She believes that universities must take immediate action and examine why women are not being provided with the opportunities to reach the peak of their career.