Women to lead 4 out of 5 best universities in world for the first time, reveals data

Generally, men hold positions of power in universities but tables have turned now as women are increasingly taking decision-making positions. According to the Times Higher Education's Global University Rankings 2023, women will lead four out of five leading universities–Oxford, Harvard, Cambridge, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the first time. The ranking will be revealed by July in 2023, reported Indian Express.

Oxford University which was first in THE’s World University Rankings) is currently led  by Irene Tracey; Claudine Gay at Harvard (second) and Deborah Prentice at Cambridge (joint third) will be appointed in leadership positions in July. Currently, Sally Kornbluth holds a leadership position in MIT. 

The data by World University Rankings 2023 revealed that out of 200 universities, 48 have women presidents or vice-chancellors, which is an increase from 43 in last year. It only means that there is a 12 per cent increase in women taking up leadership positions than last year and 41 per cent more than five years ago.

The increasing appointments of women at leadership positions in US and Germany led to the sudden surge and the data further showed that the US comes with a large proportion of the top 200 universities led by women (16 out of 58). Additionally, of the top 200 universities, 2.5 per cent (or 10 per cent of women-led institutions) are led by women of colour.

The data revealed that women lead five top German universities– three more than last year. The names are the University of Tübingen’s Karla Pollmann, the University of Freiburg’s Kerstin Krieglstein and the Technical University of Berlin’s Geraldine Rauch who became the first woman to preside over their institutions.
This is also the reality of other European countries such as France (3 out of 5), the Netherlands (5 out of 10) and the UK (8 out of 28).

Asia is also not behind when it comes to women in leadership positions as neuroscientist Nancy Ip became the first woman to lead 200 universities when she was appointed as the President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
 
Saudi Arabia also comes with one woman leader serving an interim position. Hana Abdullah Al-Nuaim is the interim woman leader of the largest university in Saudi Arabia – King Abdulaziz University.

The data showed that there has been a consistent year-on-year rise of women bosses in global universities — 43 in 2022, 41 in 2021, 39 in 2020 and 34 in 2019 and 2018.

However, 12 out of 27 countries did not have any women in leadership roles in their top universities.

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