A hard layer of the glass ceiling

Today more women than men are enrolling in higher education courses. But there are still precious few women running universities. Just how few is revealed in research by Lalage Bown, emeritus professor of Glasgow University, who has headed an academic department for 26 years. She found that 42 per cent of UK higher education institutions have no women in their top five jobs.

There were no senior women, for example, in six of the eight colleges of the University of Wales, or in three of the four ancient universities of Scotland. More telling, she says, there were no senior women at five of the top 10 universities in her survey. The elite institutions without women in the top ranks were University College London, the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, and the universities of Oxford, Warwick and York.

"The absence of women decision-makers in major research universities is alarming," Professor Bown says. "Where there are women officers, they are mostly lone individuals among a large male majority."

But not all the news is bad. Of the 146 colleges and universities examined, 11 now have women vice-chancellors or the equivalent. And these women are occupying the top jobs not only in "new" universities but also in "old" ones. Notable among them is Dame Elizabeth Esteve-Coll, former director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, who has stormed the barricades at the University of East Anglia (but is having to retire later this year due to ill health), and Dame Janet Finch, at Keele. Perhaps the most interesting of the new appointments is that of Dr Alexandra Burslem, at Manchester Metropolitan University, who gained a degree as a mature student and whose experience therefore mirrors that of many women in academe.

Baroness Blackstone of Stoke Newington, Master of Birkbeck College, London, argues that the reason so many of Britain's top universities are still run by men is that women have yet to attain the positions from which they can make the leap to one of the top five jobs. "That is going to change," she says.

The key decision-making jobs - vice-chancellor, deputy vice-chancellor, registrar, senior finance officer and librarian - are mostly occupied by men in their 50s and 60s. They went to secondary school in the Fifties and to university in the early Sixties. That was an era when many fewer women got degrees, and those who did had little hope of climbing the greasy pole. Others took time out to have children and found they were behind in the race when they returned. Lady Blackstone is confident that today's young women will be more fortunate.

Her optimism is not shared by Baroness Perry, who was the head of South Bank when it was a polytechnic and is now principal of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. Although she agrees that women have not had enough time to percolate through the system, she nevertheless believes there is too much complacency abroad. "There are a lot of assumptions about these posts being for men," she says. "I think the United Kingdom is incredibly complacent about equal opportunities."

One reason why there are seven women heads of universities (11, if you count colleges and higher education institutions) compared with only two five years ago, is the admission of polytechnics to university status. They existed, among other things, to give opportunities to groups who had missed out in the past.

Seven years ago, Professor Christine King, who is now vice-chancellor of Staffordshire University, started a group called Through the Glass Ceiling, a networking organisation for women managers in higher education. She believes that one of the reasons why there are still so few women in the top jobs is financial. Funding cuts have meant fewer positions, particularly for outsiders.

Senior management jobs are often unattractive to women with children because of the hours of meetings stretching into the night, and because their occupants appear to belong to an all-male club. Once you get enough women in such jobs - a critical mass - attitudes can change. They have, for example, at Birkbeck, where three of the top five positions are now taken by women.

"I believe women are very well suited to management, in that we're able to manage change and to be flexible in the way we look at structures and outcomes," Professor King says. "Men do all those things, but women working together are able to do an amazing amount. They are able to see across boundaries of departments, they're focused on a goal, and they're good at motivating people."

The Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals, under pressure from the Association of University Teachers, has begun to acknowledge the problem. Together the two bodies have established a commission on career opportunities which is about to mount a pilot project, "Room at the Top", to help aspiring female managers. It is based on an American scheme which has been running for 20 years, and will identify a group of 12 to 16 women high-flyers and give them mentors and other help over an 18-month period.

In America, more than 480 women hold top higher education jobs - 16 per cent of the total, compared with 12 per cent in 1992. In the last year, 25 per cent of the most senior appointments have gone to women.

Diana Warwick, chief executive of the CVCP, hopes such programmes will accelerate change. She is also concerned to raise the awareness of people making decisions about recruitment and promotion. In the past, vice-chancellors worked effectively through an old-boy network. That is now changing in many institutions. Most universities now have equal opportunities policies but much needs to be done to implement such policies, according to Penny Holloway, a librarian at the University of Ulster and president-elect of the AUT.

Universities need to have decent appointments procedures that list the criteria for positions, she says. They should agree to shortlist only those who meet the criteria. The whole process should be open and rational, and the number of women in different positions should be monitored.

In her research Professor Bown also comments on the dearth of women in some of the more ceremonial positions - those of university visitor, and chancellor. Of the 121 institutions examined here, 27 had a woman visitor or patron - it was usually the Queen - and 11 had women chancellors. Few universities had women as chairmen of their governing bodies. The same was true of the learned societies.

The United Kingdom compares unfavourably with other Commonwealth countries. Canada, for example, has 13 women vice-chancellors in its 84 universities. In Australia, only 17 institutions have no women in leadership positions, compared with our 42 per cent. Professor Bown believes British universities could benefit from an Australian idea which is to give a senior manager - say, a pro-vice-chancellor - responsibility for equal opportunities. That way the issue would receive a higher profile than it does at present.

Gillian Slater, vice-chancellor of Bournemouth University, believes that it will take time for women to work their way up the hierarchy. She adds that perhaps women have more sense than to want the top jobs, the poisoned chalices of academen

Change is manifest throughout the system. Things are changing and will continue to do so - Tessa Blackstone

The number of women at the top is small but things are moving in the right direction. There are more women vice-chancellors than ever and there has been a turnaround in Oxford and Cambridge, where women heads used to be confined to all-female colleges. Now, mixed colleges are appointing women. Change is manifest throughout the system. Last week, I interviewed applicants for an external relations and information officer. Four out of the five candidates were women. Birkbeck has also shortlisted applicants for the position of deputy registrar. One-half of those shortlisted were women. So, things are changing and will continue to do so.

It may take longer for more women to be elected to the chairmanships of university governing bodies. One of the difficulties is that there has been a tendency recently for these jobs to be taken by senior people from the private sector. They are inevitably men.

Baroness Blackstone is Master of Birkbeck College, London.

It's a pity nobody has ever had the stamina to take a case to the European Court - Lisa Jardine

It's an open secret that appointments procedures, particularly at senior levels in universities, do not observe good equal opportunities practice. Jobs in arts subjects attract equal numbers of male and female applicants. Typically, the first shortlist produces a ratio of around six to four, men to women; the second shortlist produces a ratio of five to one. Statistically, that is discrimination - even if it is inadvertent. It's a pity nobody has ever had the stamina to take a case to the European Court.

Senior management is all about juggling multiple tasks, and women are better at that than men. The way to get more women into senior management is to be much more rigorous about hiring practices. Lisa Jardine is professor of English at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London.

We have an appalling track record on equal opportunities - Pauline Perry

Women have not had long enough yet to come through the system. But they are beginning to reach the rank of principal lecturer and head of department, and the number of women professors is increasing (it is now 7.3 per cent). One can assume that they will get through to the most senior levels in another 10 to 15 years. But there is a problem with women not applying for such jobs. Young women with leadership potential need help and encouragement of the kind provided by Cambridge University's Springboard programme, which was set up to help young women lecturers think about promotion and a career path. Universities should adopt equal opportunities policies and interviewing panels need training in equal opportunities procedures. The United Kingdom is complacent about equal opportunities. We assume we have done what we can, but I think we have an appalling track record. Baroness Perry is principal of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.