London, March 6. Four of the five best universities in the world, Oxford, Harvard, Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will be led before next July, for the first time, by women.
So says the Times Best Universities Rankings 2023 on International Women’s Day on the 8th.
According to this information, almost a quarter, 48 of the world’s top 200 universities, have female presidents or vice-presidents, which is an increase from the 43 recorded last year.
This increase was driven by appointments made in the United States and Germany, while there are 12% more women in these leadership positions than in 2022 and 41% more than five years ago. .
Top ranked British Oxford is currently managed by Irene Tracey; Claudine Gay at Harvard (ranked second) and Deborah Prentice at Cambridge (ranked third) will take over in July while Sally Kornbluth currently leads MIT.
According to this, the United States has a high proportion of universities among the world’s top 200 headed by women, with 16 out of 58. France -with 3 out of 5-, the Netherlands -5 out of 10) and the United Kingdom -8 out of 28-.
Last year, 13 of America’s top universities were headed by women. The eighth best in the world, the University of Berkeley (California), is led by Carol Christ, who has held the position since July 2017, while the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, Cornell and Bronw, has Elizabeth Magill, Martha Pollack and Christina Paxson . leading, respectively.
In Germany, five higher education institutions have women in their management positions, which is 3 more than last year. Among them, that of Tübingen, with Karla Pollmann, that of Freiburg, with Kerstin Krieglstein, and the Technical University of Berlin, with Geraldine Rauch.
In Asia, neuroscientist Nancy Ip has been named president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, becoming the region’s first female leader of a university ranked among the world’s top 200 in the past five years.
Hana Abdullah Al-Nuaim is the acting director of Saudi Arabia’s largest university, King Abdulaziz University.
Rosa Ellis, director of rankings for the Times Higher Education, called it “incredible to see that four of the top five universities in the world will soon be led by women.”
But he added that “it’s a shame there’s a ‘but’, only 24% of the top 200 universities are headed by women”.
“Although progress is being made, universities, which are the beacon of learning, knowledge and human progress in the world, must do much more to advance the role of women not only in the best universities but at all positions,” he said. EFE
to prc/vg/