Efforts to create a better gender balance and greater diversity at Tech mean that there is a targeted focus on getting more female research directors in the future. Brian Vinter, who is vice-dean for research at Tech, explains:

“Tech wants to implement targeted efforts to recruit and retain talents at Tech’s departments by creating a workplace characterised by gender equality, diversity and inclusion. We also have increasing focus on retaining and recruiting a larger number of female research directors," says Brian Vinter, and he elaborates:

“Despite gender parity among PhD students, the proportion of women in permanent academic positions at Tech decreases further up the academic career ladder. We need to change this, so more women choose to follow a career at Tech," he says.

Exit surveys to help with retention
One of the tools Tech is planning to use to retain more women in managerial positions is to introduce exit surveys. These consist of a questionnaire survey for all academic staff (including PhD students) who leave Tech, and interviews with selected staff:

On the basis of the data collected, the faculty or departments requiring extra efforts can ensure targeted initiatives. Hopefully this will help us understand what it takes to retain and attract more women for academic positions," he emphasises.

Part of AU’s action plan for diversity and gender equality
The efforts at Tech are part of AU's new "Action plan for gender equality, diversity and inclusion 2023-25", which includes four activities that apply across the university. One of the university's main activities was a diversity and gender equality conference at the beginning of March, where almost 450 people from AU participated. In addition, each faculty, Enterprise and Innovation, and the administration have prepared separate activities to be worked on during the action-plan period:

"At Tech, collaboration is a core value. We collaborate on an international, national and local scale. With the new action plan for diversity, we will focus on reaping the benefits of diversity in collaboration on the smallest scale: the research group. By focusing on diversity in the group, we can cement our collaboration deeply in our everyday lives and ensure that we also deliver the best research in the future," says Brian Vinter, vice-dean for research at Tech.

Read more about gender equality and diversity at AU on this website.