CEU Policy on Increasing the
Representation of Women as Faculty

What and what for?
· Affirmative action Policy to increase the
proportion of women in the Faculty body
· Tackle the gender imbalance in professorial
ranks (May 2021):
⮚ Assistant Prof: 41%
⮚ Associate Prof: 27%
⮚ Full Prof: 26%

How? A one year process
· Affirmative action measures were included in
the GEP (Senate approval)
· Inspiration: Eindhoven University of Technology
(NL) June 2019, Irene Curie Fellowship Program
affirmative action policy

How? A one year process
· First draft:
⮚ Small working group, including the Pro-Rector of
Social Sciences and Humanities
⮚ Strong affirmative action
⮚ Longer than expected feedback loop; in the
meantime, Pro-Rector stepped down
WAKE UP CALL: not inclusive enough. Lesson learnt.

How? A one year process
· Wider working group: 12 faculty members
across hierarchies
· New draft: much softer in its affirmative action,
more gender-sensitive elements across the
recruitment process

Close-up of the Policy

The way to Senate Approval, part I
- Policy passes SLT revision with strong support
from Rector and Provost
- Academic Forum and Senate – some faculty raise
objections:
1. “against equal opportunity for men”
2. impossible to guarantee a specific gender distribution in
the applicant pool
3. gender balanced Search Committees would “punish
female faculty for being women”

The way to Senate Approval, part II
Changes incorporated:
1. Gender balanced search committee, with all possible
measures will be taken to avoid overloading female Faculty
with Committee work
2. “Aim” for a pool of applicants with the same gender
distribution than the PhD graduates in the discipline
3. Gender balanced shortlist “as a rule”, give justification if this
is not achieved

After Policy approval
Consultation with Heads of Departments regarding the aimed gender distribution
of pool of applicants. Statistics from CEU PhD graduates and from EUROSTAT,
per discipline.

Challenges
• Lack of online application portal makes it very
difficult to monitor gender of applicants (to be
solved soon)
• Current slow down of hires, combined with a
much softer affirmative action element will make
progress slow

• Strong
leadership
support
Strenghts
• Cumulative
• Inclusive
• Innovative
• Sustainable
• SUPERA as
catalyst

THANK YOU

SUPERA project has received funding from the European
Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme
under the grant agreement No. 787829.
www.superaproject.eu
info@superaproject.eu