6th March 2014 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Academics at Cambridge University have issued a statement calling for new recruitment techniques to tackle the lack of female professors in UK universities. They cited the fact that at present only 22% of university professors are women, and called for a more inclusive recruitment process. They said that universities would benefit from considering a wider range of skills, examining teaching and outreach in addition to publications. The statement will be published by the Times Higher Education Magazine, and will call for a new recruitment process which will be more inclusive, but not disadvantage men.
The focus of their argument is that universities should consider a broader range of experience from academics’ professional lives, increasing the value of teaching work, administrative skills and involvement in outreach programmes. Valuing these aspects would, they said, allow a broader approach to the process of promotion and success in the world of academia. Research conducted at Cambridge suggested that women academics value a broader range of skills, and are currently losing out in trying to build their skills in areas that are under-appreciated in the current system. A survey of 126 women academics showed widespread support for overhauling the recruitment process.
Cambridge University have emphasised that although they support changes in the recruitment process, the standards for academics would remain rigorous. Prizes, publications and research would remain central to the process, but greater weight would be given to teaching skills, the wider role of academics in their departments and the university as a whole. Currently, women are more likely to apply for undergraduate degrees than men, but this contrasts sharply with the fact that 78% of university professors are men.