IV. European Women Rectors’ ConferenceIV. European Women Rectors’ Conference

Gülsün SAĞLAMERGülsün SAĞLAMERIstanbul Technical UniversityIstanbul Technical University

16 May 2014, Istanbul16 May 2014, Istanbul

European Women Rectors Across EuropeEuropean Women Rectors Across Europe Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Role of Leadership for Structural ChangesBeyond the Glass Ceiling: Role of Leadership for Structural Changes

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ContentContent• New developments at EU level

• “Women Academics Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Women Rectors Across Europe” (11th of November 2008)

• “Women Academics Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Women Rectors Across Europe, Women Leadership in Higher Education”(12-14th of April 2010)

• European Women Rectors Across Europe: Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Achievements, Challenges and Opportunities (21-23 May 2012)

• European Women Rectors Across Europe: Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Role of Leadership in Structural Changes 15-17 May 2014

• Some Conclusions

• Istanbul Recommendations

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Supporting EC policy on Gender and Scince

1. Communication on the ERA 2012:o Gender is one of 5 priorities: o “Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research: Encouraging

gender diversity to foster science excellence and relevance”.

Member states are invited to:o Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives.o Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organizations

and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender.o Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in

committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programs.

2. Horizon 2020, Art. 15:o Structural change for ensuring equal opportunities and promoting

women’s careers.o Promoting integration of gender dimensions in research

and innovation content

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First meeting has been organized as pre-conference meeting of the UNICAFE dissemination conference titled “Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Women Academics in Engineering, Technology and Life Sciences Across Europe” (12-14 November 2008, ITU, Istanbul )

We invited women rectors and vice rectors of European universities which are already members in EUA.

EUA has supported us to organize such an event in Istanbul. We invited 43 EUA member universities and received 11 positive replies from 9 countries. We have also extended our invitation to present and former women rectors and vice rectors of Turkish universities and received 10 positive replies. The representative of EC was present in this meeting

At the conference, Women Rectors shared experiences with each other and discuss the possibilities of– How to improve the situation of women academics, – How to develop strategies for future-oriented cooperation

They focused on new ideas to improve the conditions for women academics to remove the barriers for horizontal and vertical segregation and decided;– To continue the organization of the meetings annually, – To cooperate with the similar networks and organizations in the world.

Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Women Rectors Across Europe Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Women Rectors Across Europe (11th of November 2008)(11th of November 2008)

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““Beyond the Glass Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Women Rectors Ceiling: Women Rectors Across Europe, Women Across Europe, Women and Leadership In Higher and Leadership In Higher Education”, which is Education”, which is again hosted by ITU and again hosted by ITU and supported by IAUP supported by IAUP (International Association (International Association of University Presidents) of University Presidents) and EUA (European and EUA (European University Assosication).University Assosication).

““Women Academics Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Women Rectors Across Europe, Women Academics Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Women Rectors Across Europe, Women Leadership in HigherWomen Leadership in Higher Education” Education”

12-14 April 2010, Istanbul12-14 April 2010, Istanbul

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Road Map & Recommendations

• Formation of a European Women Rectors’ Platform,

• Representation in & interaction with “World Women Presidents’ Forum”

• Organisation of annual/biannual conferences,

• Creating opportunities for collobrative projects,

• Participation in the activities of the European & global higher education organisations.

– EUA Annual Conference, October 20-23 , 2010, Palermo– IAUP Triennial Conference, June 17-20, 2011, NewYork– SEFI Annual Conference 2011 Lisbon,September 27-30, 2011– World Women University Presidents Forum 3-5 November, 2011

The Third European Women Rectors Conference 21-23 May 2012,ISTANBUL 13

In the third Conference; In the third Conference; 79 participants from 29 countries 79 participants from 29 countries 60 international and 19 national participant60 international and 19 national participant

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““Women Academics Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Women Rectors Across Europe, Women Academics Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Women Rectors Across Europe, Women Leadership in HigherWomen Leadership in Higher Education” Education”

21-23 May 21-23 May 20120122, Istanbul, Istanbul

III European Women Rectors Conference 21-23 May 2012

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III. European Women Rectors’ ConferenceIII. European Women Rectors’ ConferenceEuropean Women Rectors Across Europe: Beyond the Glass Ceiling

Achievements, Challenges and OpportunitiesIn this third meeting we will have 79 participants, with some 60 of

these coming from 29 countries in Europe and Asia, and also from Africa

This conference was also hosting the sub-conference of the 6th Conference of WWUPF to be held in China in 2014

Minister of Family and Social Policies and the President of CoHE supported and honored the conference

We had 7 distinguished keynote speakers with 26 excellent presentations.

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Under the Patronage of UNESCO

IV. EWRC is organized under the patronage of UNESCO

Prof.Liu Jinan , Prof.Gulsun Saglamer met with The Director General of UNESCO Mrs. Irina Bokova on9th April 2014 in Paris and discussed the possibilities of UNESCO support;oCooperation of WWUPF and EWRP under UNESCOoDeveloping New Projects by the support of UNESCO oUnesco Patronage for both of the conferences

o IV.EWRC, 15-17 May 2014, Istanbulo VI.WWUPF, 07-09 September 2014, Beijing

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UNESCO 9 April 2014, Paris

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IV.European Women rectors Conference 15-17 May 2014, Istanbul

The theme of the fourth European Women Rectors Conference is the role of leadership in structural changes for achieving gender equality in academia.

The aim of the conference is to articulate a set of recommendations for different bodies such as European Commission, nation states and academic leaders /academic institutions.

During the plenary sessions invaluable contributions have been made by the keynote speakers and along the parallel sessions distinguished women leaders coming from 30 different countries shared their experiences and discussed the questions of: •What are the structural changes that we need to promote gender equality in higher education and research? •How are we going to initiate these changes? •How are we going to monitor change processes?•How are we going to measure the results and close the loop?We are hoping to articulate recommendations for academic leaders, institutions, nation states and supra national organizations

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IV.European Women rectors Conference 15-17 May 2014, Istanbul

We have developed a database using oThe list of WWUPFoThe list of EUA oThe list of women academic leaders developed by google searchoWe have sent 350 invitations

oWe have over 80 participants from 30 different countrieso 60 international o 22 national

oWe have 7 distinguished keynote speakerso30 presentations in parallel sessions

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IV.European Women rectors Conference 15-17 May 2014, Istanbul

In summary: what are the facts?

•Gender equality in academia is still an urgent problem •Horizontal and vertical segregation make the academic life difficult for women•The inequality problem is even more drastic at decision making levels•Asymmetric distribution of research funding still persists among female and male researchers •Recruitment and promotion processes are still present specific difficulties for women

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IV.European Women rectors Conference 15-17 May 2014, Istanbul

Therefore we need;

•Substantial structural changes for promoting gender equality in academia•Strong leadership as it plays a crucial role in change processes•Holistic approaches to improve the conditions step by step•Concrete but flexible strategies and road maps as well as close monitoring – evaluation – feedback mechanisms.

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Collaboration between WWUPF and EWRP

• What are the possible areas for collaboration?• Designing an extensive World-wide database for women academics ;

– Active women leaders in academia– Former women leaders in academia

• Organizing small workshops (annualy min. 2 workshops) to create awareness;– in different countries– in different continents

• Organizing conferences in an integrated way such as;– Organizing biannual conferences and hosting sub-conferances of each other– Organizing conferences every four year but every two years we will be meeting in one of these

conferences 2014 (EWRC-WWUPF)-2016(WWUPF or EWRC)-2018 (EWRC)-2020(WWUPF)

• Designing training leadership courses for young academics • Taking part in other HE and research networks’ conferences for the visibility

of the Forum and Platform

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What we need for effective and efficient collaboartion?

• We need you /your committements and contributions• We need sound organizations• We need UNESCO support

– Patronage– letter of cooperation– Designing projects together

• We need EC support• We need visibility therefore we need

– Good PR strategy– Effective and efficient communication tools

And……• We need funding

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Thank Yougsaglamer@gmail.com

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