Junior academics ‘under-represented in university governance’

Early career academics (ECAs) are often under-represented in university decision-making bodies across Europe, particularly women, who are almost entirely absent from senior governance roles, a new study has found.

The paper, published in the journal Higher Education Quarterly, examined institutional structures across nine European countries – Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Malta, Lithuania, Estonia and Croatia.

The researchers define early career academics as those with research and/or teaching experience who are pursuing a PhD or are within eight years of completing their PhD.

They found that cultural factors proved more important than how a university is managed. Countries such as Germany and the Netherlands which have “lower power distance” scores – meaning people are less likely to accept large gaps in authority and hierarchy – are more likely to include junior academics in decision-making bodies. Meanwhile, such academics were often absent from central governing bodies in countries with higher power distance scores, such as Malta and Cyprus. 

“The most striking finding to me is the importance of the organisational and higher education system culture in how ECAs are represented and heard – and the great variability in formal representation across the European higher education area,” Liudvika Leišytė, the lead researcher of the study and the deputy director of the Center of Higher Education at TU Dortmund University, told Times Higher Education. 

But representation does not necessarily translate into influence, the study stresses. “Power disparities between management, professors, and ECAs are supported and maintained by organisational structures across most case study [higher education institutions],” it says.

Even when ECAs are formally included in decision-making bodies, they are often placed on committees with limited authority over issues that matter the most such as budgets and strategy. 

The study also found that women were present in departmental decision-making in several countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, Lithuania, Croatia, Cyprus and Spain, but they were “largely absent” from higher-level governance structures, except for the examples in Germany and Spain.

In science and engineering faculties, the gender gap is even wider, leaving junior women researchers with few pathways into influential roles. “This reflects the broader gendered structure of academia and reinforces patterns of exclusion at the intersection of career stage, discipline, and gender,” it says. 

The study pointed out that all the institutions it examined had all adopted the European Commission’s Gender Equality Plans (GEPs), but says these have “limited capacity” to address the under-representation of female early career academics in influential governance roles because it does not account for career stage or disciplinary differences.

National rules also vary considerably. While Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain provide some legal basis for junior researcher representation, most countries focus narrowly on PhD students while other early career academics subgroups “remain largely invisible”. 

The researchers are calling on universities to set clear targets or quotas for junior academics on boards and work more closely with organisations that represent them.

seher.asaf@timeshighereducation.com