HELM puts women leadership at the forefront

Women within higher education institutions have been taking up more leadership and management roles. This is in a bid to encourage and promote equality within higher education institutions.

The Higher Education Leadership and Management (HELM) launched an initiative aimed at empowering women for change in higher education. An initiative which will include 26 women from 17 public universities in a six-month-long Women in Leadership (WiL) programme.

The programme is a collaboration between HELM with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), British Council, Advance HE and the United Kingdom’s University of Bath.

“WiL recognises that gender equity and women’s access to executive and management positions in universities is a major challenge in South Africa and on the African continent. It is therefore intended to promote the rights of women and afford them opportunities to reach their full potential.”

The programme was launched on the 1st of September and its focus will be on a variety of disciplines at different levels of leadership at their institutions. Included among them are executive deans, heads of schools and academic programmes, senior lecturers, directors: research and deputy vice-chancellor.