See the complete record of prime women-led universities
Women maintain vice-chancellor or equal positions at 51 of the world’s prime 200 universities, in accordance with knowledge collected by Times Higher Education.
Compared to final yr, there have been three extra feminine leaders on this function, and 23 greater than in 2015, when THE first began accumulating knowledge, representing an 82 p.c improve over 9 years.
The United States, which has the very best variety of feminine leaders on the record drawn from the 2024 World University Rankings, has seen a decline within the variety of feminine leaders in positions from 16 to fifteen as of February 1, whereas Europe has 5 extra. There is a frontrunner. .
Since Deborah Prentice took the helm at Cambridge University in July 2023, the UK has had 9 leaders, up from eight final yr.
Sweden doubled the variety of feminine leaders within the prime 200 from one to 2, and the Netherlands elevated from 5 to 6. She has considered one of Italy’s prime 200 feminine leaders. Sapienza University of Rome positioned her within the prime 200, though beforehand she was ranked 201-250.
Finland, Ireland and New Zealand every have one college within the prime 200, all of that are led by girls.
Two feminine leaders have misplaced their jobs within the United States in current months in high-profile circumstances.
Claudine Gay, Harvard University’s second girl and first black president, resigned in January amid accusations of plagiarism and criticism of her look at a Congressional listening to on anti-Semitism. Professor Gay’s tenure as president lasted simply six months, the shortest in Harvard’s 388-year historical past.
Elizabeth McGill, the previous president of the University of Pennsylvania, additionally appeared on the listening to, however resigned in December after showing to sidestep questions on whether or not college students who known as for the genocide of Jews violated the college’s code of conduct. She led the college for simply 18 months.
Professor Gay and Professor McGill had been each changed by males, Interim President Alan Garber and Larry Jameson, respectively.
The United States has a complete of 56 universities within the prime 200, and 27% of main universities are run by girls. More than a 3rd (36 per cent) of the UK’s prime universities are led by girls, and 55 per cent of the Netherlands’ prime 11 universities have feminine college presidents.
Germany has persistently had robust feminine management, with girls main six of the highest 21 universities (29%) this yr.
A spokesperson for Humboldt University Berlin, which at the moment has its third feminine chief, stated that at Germany’s public universities, “promotions are strictly regulated by legislation” and that “girls and equal alternative officers are We should be concerned within the course of.”
These cops are “known as upon to behave as a form of governing physique to take structural and particular person measures towards discrimination towards girls,” she defined.
Simonetta Manfredi, professor of equality and variety administration at Oxford Brookes University, has been researching gender equality in greater schooling for many years and believes there will be bias within the recruitment course of for college presidents. He known as on universities to introduce recruitment targets for college presidents. About a feminine vp.
“If you concentrate on it, objectives are used on a regular basis in greater schooling, and certainly in different varieties of organizations. There are scholar recruitment objectives and all types of objectives. So if equality is to be taken critically, , I see no purpose why we should not make the most of equality in that space as properly,” she stated.
Top 10 Women-Led Universities in 2024
Note: This evaluation is predicated on University Leaders within the publish February 1, 2024, and contains 201 establishments as three universities tied for 199th place.
rosa.ellis@timeshighereducation.com