Institutions are hiring more foreign researchers, but how do they fare?
“My impression is that many PhD students and post-docs get used as workhorses on research projects,” says a former employee representative for researchers.
“My impression is that many PhD students and post-docs get used as workhorses on research projects,” says a former employee representative for researchers.
Headhunting top international researchers does not necessarily make academia more diverse. Diversity is not achieved by hiring from a pool of academics from well-known US universities, says Mariel Aguilar-Støen.
But the vast majority of them are foreign researchers. Immigrants educated in Norway and descendants of immigrants are underrepresented in Norwegian academia, new statistics show.
The top five news articles in 2020 deal with topics such as sexual harassment, discrimination, COVID-19's effect on scientific productivity, and new EU demands for gender equality plans.
Marcela Linkóva of the National Contact Centre for Women and Science in the Czech Republic is thrilled about Talent at stake, the new publication from the KIF Committee. She is not alone.
By promoting gender equality in research, we enhance the quality and relevance of research, according to Arvid Hallén, Director General of the Research Council of Norway.
The Research Council of Norway is planning a large-scale initiative to increase the recruitment of women to high-level positions and research management.
By changing the name to the Committee for Gender Balance in Research, the KIF Committee has received a stricter mandate for its work. “This sends a signal that gender equality involves more than equal rights,” says Mari Teigen, Research Director at the Institute for Social Research (ISF).
A lack of professional leadership is an obstacle to achieving gender equality in academia, according to Curt Rice, Vice Rector at the University of Tromsø. He is calling for stronger leadership and new ways of working. His first priority is to ensure that more women reach the top.
Talent at stake. Changing the culture of research – gender-sensitive leadership is designed to inspire everyone who wants to do something to increase diversity and promote greater gender balance within the research sector.
In order to achieve gender equality, we must change the structures in academia. This requires a systematic effort in which the top-level administration at each institution takes active part, according to Linda Marie Rustad, Senior Adviser for the Committee for Gender Balance in Research (KIF).
“It is more important for the universities to become adept at marketing the engineering sciences to women rather than designing measures such as gender points to increase their numbers,” says Svandis Benediktsdottir, Gender Equality Adviser at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
In March, the Norwegian Nurses Organisation voiced its support for giving gender points to men who want to become nurses. Now the Ministry of Education and Research has given its response: There are no plans at this time to introduce such a measure.
Gender will no longer count when students are admitted to Swedish universities and university colleges. Sweden’s Minister for Higher Education and Research Tobias Krantz says that preferential treatment based on gender has hit talented female students especially hard.