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Against a background of Bologna process goals to improve employment prospects for PhD graduates, and the crisis of precarious employment conditions and prospects afflicting postdoctoral researchers – hitherto postdocs, the OECD ([2021], "Reducing the Precarity of Academic Research Careers." In OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers. Paris: OECD Publishing,) called for research into postdoctoral careers and the precarity phenomenon. This paper responds by giving attention to career breaks as these represent a prevalent but under researched aspect of postdoc precarity in the contemporary academic labor market. Utilizing a substantial international mixed-method dataset with a sample of 950 postdocs, the study examined experiences and perceptions of the professional and personal implications of academic career breaks. Results reveal significant differences between males and females in key areas: maternity was the main reason for females' career breaks, and redundancy/end of contract for males. Females resumed employment more with the same employer and males with a different employer. Support surrounding career breaks was mixed, largely inadequate, but not associated with gender. Perceptions of career breaks differed significantly across groups of postdocs that previously experienced a career break, those on a career break, and postdocs that had never had a career break. The latter two groups perceived negative career outcomes and positive personal outcomes more than postdocs who had previously had a career break, however, significant gender differences indicate females were more negative about the personal implications of career breaks. Discussion of the findings concludes that under neoliberalism postdocs represent a growing lumpen proletariat, leading to recommendations for policy, practice and further research into gender, precarity and postdoctoral careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining academics 'engagement with non-academics in industry, public agencies and charities, this paper examines gender gaps between men and women. Using a large-scale survey of UK academics, we find that although there is difference between women and men in the commercial areas of engagement, with men being more active in this domain than their women colleagues of a similar age and experience and of the same rank, discipline, and university, this pattern is reversed for academic engagement with the third sector, with women more likely to engage with charities, regardless of career stage and research field. We explore the gendered nature of academic engagement, and discuss policy implications arising from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines women scientists' participation in Knowledge Exchange (KE) with nonacademic actors. We compare three KE types –informal engagement, formal engagement and commercialization– and find significant differences in participation depending on type. In informal engagement, women and men participate equally, but women participate less than men in both formal engagement and commercialization. We explore whether academic rank and women peers influence this participation gap. We find evidence of a levelling effect related to academic rank in the case of formal engagement and an emulating effect related to women peers in the case of commercialization. The implications of the emerging gender patterns are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although recent reforms of higher education (HE) across Europe have involved reconfigurations of internal governance structures, little research has been conducted on the characteristics and practices of governing bodies and their impact on performance. In particular, more empirical evidence is required on the composition of the board of directors, whose role and responsibilities in strategy making and monitoring of university activities have been significantly strengthened. This paper focuses on the issue of diversity in board composition, which has gained increasing attention in the corporate literature but has largely been ignored in HE. Since most studies of diversity in HE have been fragmented, a configurational approach is followed to examine the combinations of diversity of directors that lead to high board performance in universities. Drawing from the literature and considering the characteristics of university governance, four conditions are identified: age, gender, educational background and provenance. The method of fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is used to investigate the cases of 18 medium-sized state universities in Italy. The analysis revealed that no single condition is necessary or sufficient, while there are two paths that lead to board effectiveness: low educational background diversity and high provenance diversity combined with high age diversity, and low educational background diversity and high provenance diversity combined with low gender diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to offer an understanding of how (intersectional) bias in student evaluations of teaching affects academics’ mental health and career progression. Despite the widespread acceptance of student evaluations, an emerging stream of research has begun to highlight the biases and prejudices that underpin much of data collection when it comes to student evaluation surveys both in terms of who completes the evaluation and also in terms of who is being evaluated. While most studies provide analyses of students’ comments and illustrate the abuse that is directed at (marginalised) academics, very little research has focused on the impact of this process on academics. This study offers an overview of academics’ experiences with student evaluations by drawing on an intersectional analysis of 17 interviews with academics employed in UK Business Schools. The findings illustrate the detrimental impact of student evaluations on academics’ mental health and career progression. This study also shows how institutional pressures to keep students happy impact academics’ wellbeing and teaching approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using UK data supplied by universities, this paper confirms that women academics earn less than men, even after controlling for a range of covariates. Despite narrowing after 2004/05, the observed (unconditional) pay gap was still −0.089 in 2019/20, while the conditional pay gap was relatively unchanged remaining at around −0.050 in 2019/20. The results are consistent with the literature on why pay gaps might occur, with the key disparity occurring when women face a higher cost of investment and statistical discrimination, linked to bias, to achieve promotion. That is, the results presented here suggest that earnings gaps are significantly reduced when grade-balanced gender sub-groups are compared, suggesting conditional wage differences are more likely due to bias rather than any inherent differences in (research) productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to gain a deeper understanding of gendered practices in academia by further exploring the embodiment of gender; we do so by comparing these practices between the experiences of female and male respondents concerning gender stereotypes and the individual embodiment thereof in academics within research universities in the Netherlands. Our analysis includes interviews with 26 female and male associate professors – thirteen pairs matched at the department and discipline levels – which enabled us to compare academic experiences of each gender. A significant proportion of the interviewed academics perceived the Dutch academic context as a gendered and embodied professional setting and implied women are not only considered less eligible for promotion because of their gender; notably, some male respondents were blind to these stereotypes. Several of the reported stereotypes refer to the appearance of the female body and the behaviour of women and provided clarification of different career progressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse whether the entrepreneurial competencies acquired by students when they work on a business plan have any kind of influence on student learning process results in terms of gender. To do so, we used data obtained from questionnaires distributed among 425 students on the Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Comparing men and women, we performed exploratory factor analyses on competencies and learning process results, and linear regression analyses to determine the influence of gender and competencies on learning. Our findings indicated that women reported poorer learning results than men using the business plan methodology. Another key finding was the highly positive influence on learning process results of time-management and entrepreneurial competencies in particular. Finally, we found no significant differences between men and women in terms of the impact of competencies on learning process results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates computing students' entrepreneurial intentions, motivations, recognisable barriers and encouragements towards entrepreneurship, with a focus on gender. Two universities, one in Australia and one in the UK (n = 247), were used as locations for the research to consider two distinct contexts. In each university there were similarly high levels of interest in entrepreneurship among computing students, however some significant differences in responses were found, especially between male and female participants. Job flexibility was a strong motivation for the UK-based female participants; while female participants at the Australian university identified internal barriers (such as lack of confidence and experience). Enablers to entrepreneurial activity were identified, including access to incubators and academic support. Directing such support towards computing students, while recognising gender differences, could increase interest in, and take-up of, entrepreneurship. Recommendations are made regarding how universities can best support would-be entrepreneurs and encourage inclusive entrepreneurship into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into higher education has shown that for those who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans* and/or Queer (LGBTQ), universities are places where both direct and indirect discrimination is experienced. This paper reports the findings from a systematic search and review on gender and sexual diversity in professional practice placements. This was part of a broader project exploring the way that students were supported and educated to provide appropriate support for LGBTQ people using their services and whether students who identified as LGBTQ experienced specific issues regarding the (non)disclosure of their gender or sexual diversity in placement settings. Three primary themes were identified. Environment: which relates to the way that homophobic and transphobic discrimination is experienced in professional practice. Influence: the importance of faculty on the environment as both a positive and negative force. Interventions: how students support LGBTQ people who use their services and how educators intervene with students who identify as LGBTQ. Our review showed how students in all included disciplines report feeling under-prepared for the realities of working with LGBTQ people in practice. However there are examples of positive practices which can support LGBTQ students through navigating disclosure of their own identities, as well as enabling all students to act as advocates and allies for the LGBTQ service users and peers/colleagues that they will inevitably work with and alongside, throughout their careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the vast majority of countries women are a significant minority in senior academic positions, and as of 2013 only 17% of vice chancellors (VCs) of UK universities and 12% of German Universities were women. This paper discusses findings from a study consisting of interviews with eight female VCs of British and German higher education institutions. The paper takes a feminist poststructuralist approach to look at the ways in which characteristics of ‘ideal’ leaders in academia are discursively produced in a myriad of gendered ways, and looks at the influence of dominant academic cultures, status of institutions and national policy landscapes. From an analysis of the findings we argue that in addition to increasing the numerical proportion of women leaders in academia, work also crucially needs to be done to challenge academic cultural practices and dominant gendered conceptualisations of the ‘leader’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores one of the enduring small mysteries of student life – why do women participate in study abroad programs more than men? To answer this question, original data collected from seniors and recent graduates of a sample of liberal arts colleges in the US were analyzed. Results show an intractable gender gap persisting, even after common explanatory factors are explored, although these factors also point to the problem as one of gender and class, not gender per se. It concludes with a discussion of the meaning of cultural enrichment and venturing away from home for elite college women (elite women's venture capital), and a call for future studies that pay attention to the ways race, gender, and class intersect to produce particular meanings of study abroad participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether entrepreneurial education (EE) contributes to the entrepreneurial intentions (EI) of university students in the Visegrád countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia). The results show several differences with regard to the impact of education and entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) on entrepreneurial intentions across the four nations. The direct impact of entrepreneurship education was positive and significant in only one country, Poland, the only of the four countries to have introduced entrepreneurship education at high-school level. Additionally, an indirect influence of EE on EI was uncovered. Using a multi-construct approach to ESE, the research proves that ESEs related to searching, planning and marshalling activities mediate the impact of entrepreneurial education on intentions, although these effects differ across the studied countries. Lastly, a gender comparison indicates that although women generally have lower entrepreneurial intentions and display lower levels of ESE they benefit more than men do from entrepreneurship education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines factors affecting parental expectations of higher education prospects for their children using Australian household survey data. We find that a variety of factors influence parental expectations, of which parents' assessment of their children's academic performance is the strongest. Factors known to impact upon actual higher education participation, such as parental education and remoteness, are already evident in parental expectations, but with limited evidence of expectations being shaped by financial constraints. We also find evidence of a 'same gender' effect, with mothers exhibiting higher expectations for higher education for their daughters. This may be in part due to significantly lower expectations held by fathers with sub-bachelor qualifications. These factors contribute to higher expectations overall for girls entering university. The research points to the importance of interventions commencing in early childhood, and accounting for key household background characteristics when designing, implementing and evaluating programmes for widening participation in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of a number of drivers for change in the pursuit of gender equality in higher education in the UK and beyond, the gender gap in research activity is still widely recognised across most subject disciplines. Over recent years, mentoring strategies have often been seen as the Alexandrian sword capable of cutting the gender deficit 'Gordian Knot'. However, analysis of current practice and dialogue points to a lack of a consistent approach in addressing and implementing HE policy in this area with many initiatives providing standardised non-evidence-based provision aimed at addressing an alleged confidence deficit and exhausting an already fatigued group of successful senior women. This paper seeks to triangulate existing literature with an analysis of data collected from a funded UK-based research project ultimately proposing a five-step institutional mentoring approach aimed at providing some inroads into alleviating the gender deficit in research productivity in the academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss the importance of relevance in the provision of eLearning for the pursuit of higher education (HE). In particular, we argue how the extant literature focuses on quality and security in the design of eLearning platforms, but pays scant attention to how relevant the platform and the programme contents are to the needs of contemporary adult learners. We studied this topic from a gender perspective and identified the different imperatives and constraints pertaining to men and women seeking personal and career development through HE. Recommendations are made for HE institutions to pay particular attention to the role that relevance plays in eLearning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite over 60 years of research on leadership, few attempts have been made to ensure that the models of leadership are inclusive of women or other ‘outsiders’. This paper explores variation in the constructions of leadership at a time of institutional change in higher education. Drawing on a purposive sample, including those at presidential/rector, vice presidential/vice rector level in Irish and Portuguese universities, it compares and contrasts such senior managers' conceptions of leadership, as reflected in their descriptions of a typical president/rector and those characteristics that they see as valued in senior management in their own university. Attention is particularly focussed on the identification and gendering of collegial/managerial characteristics, and the extent to which it reflects variation in these university contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws on related research studies in two urban centres (Melbourne and Adelaide, Australia) with South Sudanese men and women engaged in varying degrees with higher education. The co-authors examine some gendered differences in the process and demands of resettlement, including within employment and education, and its implications for rapidly changing public versus private gender roles. We argue against essentialising discourses of the ‘liberatory’ nature of education in the west, versus constructions of ‘cultural knowledge’ as innate, burdensome, and less useful in western contexts. Drawing on Ahmed's critique of discourses of the ‘melancholy migrant’ which position western knowledges and gendered practices as progressive and therefore more desirable, the authors interrogate the possibility of multiple forms of knowledge and new migrants – especially South Sudanese – as enriched by their previous experiences and knowledges, rather than impoverished by them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses the determining factors of PhDs' career success. Earnings have been used as an objective measure, and a subjective measure of success was constructed based on the individuals' assessments of broader aspects of their job position. When analysing the data by field of knowledge and gender, it was found that males and PhD holders in the field of sciences achieve greater career success in terms of earnings. However, the theory of the glass ceiling does not appear to apply. On the basis of a subjective measure of career success, on the other hand, it is women and PhD holders in humanities and social sciences that are more successful. Regardless of the measure of success used, the most important determining factor in career success is job satisfaction, thus reinforcing the theory that PhD holders are a group of workers with a more complex conception of career success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes new perspectives on the underrepresentation of female faculty in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines by identifying how faculty themselves conceptualize or make sense of the problem. We conducted in-depth interviews with 19 STEM faculty members. The interviews were employed to identify discourses faculty engage in their explanations for underrepresentation. Work–family balance emerged as the leading theme, with participants identifying many challenges thereto. As participants discussed work–family balance, they engaged a discourse of choice to frame the challenges faced by female faculty members in particular. We relate the discourse of choice to the persistence of gender inequalities in STEM departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research, a major purpose of higher education, has become increasingly important in a context of global economic competitiveness. In this paper, we draw on data from email interviews with academics in Britain to explore responses to current research policy trends. Although the majority of academics expressed opposition to current policy developments, most were nevertheless complying with research imperatives. Informed by a Foucauldian conceptualisation of audit, feminist research on gendered performativity, and sociological and psycho-social theoretical resources on the affective, we discuss compliance, contestation and complicity in relation both to the data and to our own location as academics in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the extent to which the DanishBibliometric Research Indicator(BRI) reflects the performance of men and women differently. The model is based on a differentiated counting of peer-reviewed publications, awarding three and eight points for contributions to ‘well-regarded’ and highly selective journals and book publishers, and 1 and 5 points for equivalent scientific contributions via ‘normal level’ channels. On the basis of bibliometric data, the study shows that the BRI considerably widens the existing gender gap in researcher performance, since men on average receive more BRI points for their publications than women. The article suggests two probable explanations: (A) women merely comprise 24% of the committee members determining which publication channels to classify as ‘well-regarded’ and ‘normal’, which may lead to biases in the classification process. (B) The model privileges collaborative research, which disadvantages women due to gender differences in collaborative network relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Borrowing has become increasingly central to U.S. students' college financing choices. However, concerns about indebtedness may serve as a barrier to attaining a college degree for many students, particularly women and Black and Hispanic students. This study explores the determinants and heterogeneous impacts of debt aversion, or aversion to borrowing for college. I use a propensity score matching strategy to estimate the relationship between debt aversion and the college enrolment and financing choices of high school students while controlling for confounding variables such as students' pecuniary valuation of college, college preparedness, and family background. More debt-averse students borrow less than other students if they enroll in college and generally attend lower cost colleges. Women and Black students are more likely on average to report moderate debt aversion than other students. Strong debt aversion is associated with lower college enrollment only for men and white, non-Hispanic students, and highly debt-averse women tend to report lower borrowing relative to the control group than similarly situated men. The results point to the need for a combination of robust college counseling in high schools and readily accessible income-based repayment programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last eight years, over 8000 academic faculty and professional services women working in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland have participated in a women-only leadership in higher education programme called Aurora. The organization that designed and delivers the programme (Advance HE) sees it as an important force for change in the sector. However, the potential for meaningful change in traditionally male domains through greater representation of women may be undermined by organizations that remain gendered. To address these issues this article outlines findings from a longitudinal, mixed-methods study on women working in higher education (HE), drawing on data from 1094 research participants. Women completed online surveys at different time points before and after participation in Aurora, with a smaller sample of participants taking part in in-depth interviews and diaries. Analysis of these data shows that the leadership programme is perceived to have a significant impact on some behaviours and attitudes of women and this impact does not on the whole diminish over time. This research is important as it is the first longitudinal study of its kind that includes both professional services and academic women. The findings will be of interest to higher education institutions (HEIs) globally that wish to develop organizational contexts in which women go on to lead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A longitudinal qualitative study of undergraduate women nursing students demonstrated the profound and pervasive influence of the heterosexual intimate relationship on their university engagement and achievement. Hitherto, the importance of women's private lives have been underappreciated in the arenas of student equity and retention. The study showed that traditional ideas of gender held within the intimate relationship were highly detrimental to student autonomy and capacity to engage, and that the university's organisation and delivery of the curriculum exacerbated the situation. Participants made personal sacrifices, which, while enabling continuation of their studies, were deleterious to academic achievement and wellbeing. For eight women, this involved separation from their partners. These results have generic implications given the renewed focus on gender equity in higher education. They have specific implications for nurse education, given the rising numbers of mature-age women nurse students, and predicted nursing workforce shortages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to validate the factor structure of professional competencies in engineering and test the measurement invariance of these competencies across gender. Through a cross-sectional survey, 552 senior undergraduate students (287 males) responded to a 24-item professional competencies scale. The professional competencies included five dimensions, namely knowledge and reasoning of technical and engineering; personal skills and attitudes; professional and ethical skills and attitudes; interpersonal skills and attitudes; and skills of developing system, product, or process. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded that five-factor structure of professional competencies fitted to the data more suitably than the one-factor structure. Results supported the reliability and validity of all the subscales assessing professional competencies. Tests for measurement invariance of the five factors provided support for configural, metric, and scalar invariance across gender. Overall, the obtained factor structure provided evidence in support of the comparability of the model between male and female students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses the effect of gender in professors' career advancement using data on the entire population of professors in the Italian university system, data on the National Scientific Qualification (NSQ) accreditation scheme, and data on scientific productivity (SciVal) for bibliometric scientific sectors. As NSQ accreditation is a prerequisite for career advancement in Italian universities, using this data makes it possible to rule out women's reluctance to apply for promotions -candidate professors must apply for accreditation- as a mechanism for explaining the gender gap in academia. Our results show a relevant gender gap in career advancement that is not explained by gender differences in productivity (above the minimum level needed to obtain the accreditation). A structural gender bias also remains after controlling for available resources and for the percentage of female full professors in the academic scientific sector. The results contribute to the debate on the introduction of gender quotas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Union policies emphasise the importance of entrepreneurship and self-employment to maintain economic growth, a solution influenced by the USA and research from schools of business. There are expectations of higher education graduates that they are innovative, will start businesses and will employ others. However, transferring a solution from one country to another may not be as simple as that. This study questions the recommendations made in EU policies which mainly focus on how to support individuals to become self-employed. Extensive data from the Swedish population registry of approximately 90,000 tertiary-educated people, all born in the mid-1970s, is used to analyse the extent to which this group became self-employed. Results show that societal and cultural differences need to be considered when creating such policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explores how boundary-spanning is carried out to further community engagement in 15 universities of differing sizes/ages across the United Kingdom. Fifteen interviewees participated in a series of four semi-structured interviews, aged between 35–50 and with a first degree (with almost half with an MSc). One third were women. All managed their own teams and felt these were their base in negotiating difficult internal territory.. Here, boundary spanning is found to be synonymous with identity work, carried out to enable individuals to adapt to different internal and external conditions and requirements through processes of interaction and learning. It also suggests the strategic construction of identities to address perceived threats and insecurities - and the impacts of change, dominant organisational discourse and senior management on this process. Their job titles were not useful as identity badges to signal meaning, due to these being outside 'what universities are for'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a study of 384 decanal appointments and reappointments and examines Canadian university deans' demographics and career paths. The study focused on four variables: gender, race, experience, and provenance; and analyzed variations across faculty and university types. The findings show that the great majority of Canadian university deans possess a Canadian background, with half of them being recruited internally, and that proportions of non-White and female deans mostly align with those of the professoriate. However, the study reveals a pattern of upward cumulative attrition suggesting that structural barriers to success, perseverance, and promotion are shaping non-White and female deans' career paths. Finally, data suggest that about 40% of Canadian university deans are reappointed for a second term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the wealth of literature on academic work, roles and identities, the meaning of being an academic often does not go beyond such pre-defined and separate roles of teacher, researcher, academic, professional and manager. Consequently, our understanding of academic work is limited. This article explores the holistic meaning of being an academic and considers how this relates to gender. Based on interviews with 35 academics from a single United Kingdom (UK) institution, we argue that what it means to be an academic, goes beyond these pre-defined and separate roles; and that other aspects, such as academic freedom, intellectual stimulation, and a sense of a calling play different roles in different constructions of being an academic. Gender is also found to be an important factor in the different ways of defining academic work. These findings have implications for our understanding of career trajectories of male and female academics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses longitudinal student data to determine the influence of social class, academic performance and other individual factors such as gender, ethnicity and age on entry on the possibility of obtaining highly paid placements in elite professions. Focusing on subject-relevant placements, the findings here strongly support the meritocratic recruitment and rewarding process for such work experience schemes. Prestigious and highly paid placements in elite professional firms are not filled by socially privileged upper-middle-class students but the academically 'brightest' students from a wide range of social and individual backgrounds. Excellent academic performance has been interpreted by elite firms as equivalent to high levels of employability skills and productivity. Finally, there is evidence to suggest that well-paid placements can facilitate socio-economic mobility of working-class students who are academically driven and aspire to gain work experience with elite professional firms despite limited economic resources at their disposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly religious students from fundamentalist or sectarian religious communities face unique challenges in pursuing higher education, directly bearing on their educational opportunities. This study reports findings on ultra-Orthodox Jewish female students in Israel, a group which only recently began pursuing higher education. Using a mixed-methods design, we surveyed 469 students and conducted in-depth interviews with 61 additional students in order to explore their motivations, concerns and challenges in pursuing higher education. The interviews elicited narratives of a 'Heroine's Journey' format, indicating that for many of these women, entering college is perceived as a transformative series of trials. Challenges and management techniques were identified, primarily concerning value and worldview conflicts. A k-means cluster analysis of the survey revealed five distinct profiles of students (practical, driven, anxious, self-realizers and conventional) with differential demographic characteristics. We analyze these results as reflecting 'multiple traditionalities' and discuss their implications for supporting highly religious students in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We look into the question whether heterogeneity stemming from research orientation, gender, or disciplinary and cultural differences with their PhD supervisors helps or hampers academics' careers. Based on a sample of 248 academics at two leading European universities of technology, we combine multinomial logit models and sequential logit models to understand career advancement. Our results show that heterogeneity stemming from research orientation is helpful. Academics who bridge between the quest for fundamental understanding and socio-economic relevance attain career success. Yet heterogeneity stemming from gender hinders careers: female academics face problems securing tenured positions and full professorships. Mentor–mentee heterogeneity only helps in early career transitions, but hampers advancement later on. Our insights offer suggestions to policymakers, university managers, and academics, because they help to identify promising academics, the right support for sitting staff members, measures correcting for gender imbalances, and can inform strategic choices regarding research orientation and PhD supervisors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although women's representation in higher education nears parity with men at the undergraduate level, this representation diminishes as one ascends the academic ranks. Because gender gaps in the ‘elite’ activity of international research collaborations might contribute to the underrepresentation of women in the upper ranks, we ask if gender differences exist in participation in international collaborations and if family responsibilities constitute a glass fence – a gendered obstacle that keeps women from this engagement. Using an international data set, we find that women engage less in international collaborations than men, and that complex gendered patterns exist regarding the impacts of partner employment status and children. Both men and women benefit from having an academic partner, although men benefit more. Partner employment status matters more than children in certain family arrangements, suggesting that the former constitutes a glass fence, potentially impacting women's access to cutting-edge international knowledge production and elite academic positions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gender, and especially the status of women, is certainly one of the most salient identities in all corners of the world. For some countries, the issues begin with the right to education at even the earliest ages. In the United States, there is a prevailing assumption, because women are a majority of the undergraduate and graduate populations in higher education that a threshold concerning access and equity has been reached. The story of gender, however, is a more complex one. This article will focus on the parallel notions of significant progress in some domains for women in higher education and the paradox that depending on the level, and depending on which women, progress and in some cases lack of progress is clear. The article will review changes over the last decades and address the deeper issues of institutional transformation and the emerging issues for policy including conceptualizations of gender. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is concerned with the macro-cultural ideal or institutional myth of excellence as defined and used in the evaluation of academic staff as part of an institutional logic. Such logics 'prescribe what constitutes legitimate behaviour and provide taken-for-granted conceptions of what goals are appropriate and what means are legitimate to achieve these goals' as stated by Pache and Santos Insead. In the case study university, this logic is reflected in the identification of ostensibly objective, gender-neutral key performance indicators of excellence. Lamont suggests that evaluation is necessarily subjective. Drawing on 23 qualitative interviews with those involved in such evaluation, this article looks at variation in the definition of excellence and in the evaluative practices in decision-making fora. It raises questions about the implications of this for gender inequality and for the myth of excellence and ultimately for the legitimacy of the organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Public Management reforms have fostered universities to focus on performance and competition which has resulted in different pressures to perform and disruption of strong teaching–research balance at universities. The imbalanced division of teaching research workloads may be gendered and can strengthen the differences in research productivity among male and female academics. This study uses survey data of Dutch academics carried out in 2015 at selected three universities to understand how pressure to perform has influenced the workload balance and what is the relationship between teaching–research balance and research productivity of female and male academics across different disciplines in different organizational contexts. The findings support the Hattie and Marsh's Common Wisdom model and show that balanced teaching research workloads improve research productivity across gender groups. Further, we show that the perception of managerialism at a university is an important mediating factor of gender balance in research productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The effects of gender on organisational structures for professional university staff have been largely overlooked in the literature. Using data from one Australian university, we examine the location of professional female staff in the organisational hierarchy. Our analysis indicated that significant gendered segregation existed within and across role level, function, and position title. Women comprised the majority of university professional staff yet the minority of senior administrative positions. Those women who were in senior executive positions were clustered in support areas at the fringe of the decision-making powers of the university. At mid-level management, where numbers of males and females were equivalent, evidence indicated that women assumed a level of greater responsibility yet at lower salary levels. These factors all contribute to professional women's invisibility within the new climate of higher education. This invisibility works to limit current and future career possibilities, as this article highlights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of degree course acceptances for UK undergraduate students in 2002 and 2008. It examines student mobility between the UK regions, and the trends in their movement within local markets. Data shows a growing trend for students to study within local regions, especially women. Increases in acceptances of over 10% are observed for students in Wales, a saturated local market is observed for Scotland, whilst in other regions there are increased student acceptances of up to 9%. Data shows the government target for 50% participation in higher education by 2010 was broadly achieved in 2008. The changing landscape in higher education is considered for its student migration and strategic income implications. Caps on student numbers are considered against balancing finances through international student numbers, highlighting implications for capacity planning and changing competition strategies. Findings highlight a need for possible strategic alliances in order to maintain positive regional developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates what Finnish academics on short fixed-term contracts consider to be the effects of having children on work and careers. The study is framed by the context of the current state of the university sector, its neoliberal and entrepreneurial tendencies and its claims to meritocracy. Informants express relative happiness with what they see as freedom and flexibility in their work/life balance, but this can turn to anxiety about their careers when they start talking about having (or postponing) children or taking long family leave. The informants' initial depiction of an egalitarian and family-friendly workplace thus turns into one of a competitive meritocracy with demands that are not easy to meet – and which are unequal in terms of gender when the talk turns to careers. In spite of this, the ideals of the entrepreneurial university are sometimes internalized, and gender equality interpreted in a neoliberal and post-feminist way. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyses a recent cohort (2006) of UK graduates, and explores the previously neglected relationship between age and post-degree employment. Much work on mature students assumes their overall experience to be one of disadvantage relative to traditional-age graduates, and this includes employability research. Here, mature students are demonstrated to be advantaged in the graduate labour market through analysis of a wide range of variables and employment success measures, utilised to produce a detailed set of findings that augment previous understanding. Mature graduates, regardless of whether they studied part- or full-time, secured paid work, graduate-level work, and a higher salary more frequently. Key mediating factors in their success include being a woman science student and having a history of previous employment with their post-degree employer. The relative employment success of mature students could not, however, be explained simply as a result of them already being in pre-degree graduate-level jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]