Sir, – Prof Pat O’Connor raised the serious omission of a gender profile of those in senior academic and administrative reports (January 2nd) in a recent evaluative report produced by the Higher Education Authority (HEA).
The HEA response (January 4th) is very disappointing – in fact somewhat insulting – given that in the late 1980s the HEA itself under the direction of Michael Gleeson commissioned and published a report on women in academia (or rather the lack of women in higher positions in academia). It does not augur well that after 30 years the HEA has not managed to count the number of men and women in each senior position in all the third-level colleges under its direction.
This is not a new issue for the HEA nor indeed is it “rocket science”, as their response suggests. – Yours, etc,
EVELYN MAHON, FTCD
School of Social Work
and Social Policy,
Trinity College Dublin.