Replete with espoused discourses of equality, diversity and inclusion within public bodies, is the UK, wherein lauded initiatives reward its universities' commitments to increasing the access and positioning of 'women' in higher education. This paper contributes a critical quantitative analysis of the state of representation and participation of…

This article explores the role of gendered academic networks in the context of research evaluation, and women's lived experiences of UK universities. Gendered power is conceptualised as an important aspect of inequality regimes, providing insight into how men maintain power and how power dynamics and informal networks function, characterised in…

This writing is born out of our experiences of becoming older women, academy hags, facing the performative demands of the neoliberalizing patriarchal university. We are raging. With the figure of the Crone, and feminist-killjoy-croning as our creative and livid research method (Ahmed, S. 2023. "Feminist Killjoy." London: Penguin Random…

This small-scale research project explores policy and staff perspectives which affect student parents in higher education at an English further education college. Drawing on Nancy Fraser's work on the welfare state and the social organisation of care work, the paper examines approaches to a marginalised student group. Qualitative data were…

Gender inequality prevails in academia; there is currently no review on the barriers and facilitators to success for female academics in UK Higher Education. We conducted a systematic search identifying 32 papers addressing this issue. Narrative review revealed six themes: networks (prohibiting the inclusion of women), home-work balance (where…

In 2019, AdvanceHE reported that there were just 25 UK Black female full professors in British universities. Black women are less likely to occupy a role at this level than their male and White counterparts. Despite this, Black women remain relatively absent in institutional initiatives to advance gender equality, and there is little commitment…

Feminist pedagogies have established the need to query power structures in terms of curriculum content and teaching praxis. However, the topic of student assessment poses difficulties: it is a means through which students' performance is evaluated and quantified according to set institutionalised criteria that values particular forms of hegemonic…

Critical policy analysis (CPA) is a means by which to critique policy and promote agency, equity, and justice. However, most CPA scholars examine political discourse from a distance rather than actively participate in political processes. Meanwhile, there is a growing interest in community-engaged research whereby academics partner with community…

While academic governance does not produce teaching and research, it provides the conditions that enable them to take place. The principal academic governance body within universities, the academic board (also known as the academic senate or faculty senate), therefore plays a key role in enabling universities to conduct their core business.…

This article provides the first analysis of all available UK university anti-bullying policies, summarising, comparing, and contrasting the content of policies acquired from university websites. The importance of anti-bullying policies is known from policy research in schools and workplaces but has previously not been investigated in Higher…

The articles in this themed issue explore global educational experiences that embrace various cultures, traditions, religions and identities. Collectively this work offers valuable insights into unexplored areas of research, illuminating issues that intersect across race, ethnicity and gender. The significance of these studies lies in the…

This paper explores the perceptions and experiences of women academics in the UK, participating in a small-scale qualitative study exploring career progression and encountered institutional obstacles. The accounts are considered in terms of both disadvantageous institutional strategies and interpersonal ones governing day-to-day working…

In the context of renewed debates and interest in this area, this paper reframes the theoretical agenda around laddish masculinities in UK higher education, and similar masculinities overseas. These can be contextualised within consumerist neoliberal rationalities, the neoconservative backlash against feminism and other social justice movements,…

The understanding of gender inequality for women entering work has not been subject to significant research or theorizing. This small study indicated that young women entering the workplace are subject to direct discrimination and by using an intersectionality approach this paper proposes that the intersection of gender and young age results in…

This article focuses on objects, bodies and space to explore how the mundane materialities of classrooms do crucial but often unnoticed performative work in enacting gendered power. Drawing on ethnographic data from a UK sixth form college study, the article analyses a series of "material moments" to elaborate a material feminist…