WHEN's Blog
A selection of insightful pieces written by women who work across the breadth of the higher education sector
Navigating the labyrinth: why are the way-markers less clear for women?
by Dr Sonia Virdee
Are our values truly reflected in the HE sector?
Most of us, I think, work in HE because it accords with our values. We believe in the power that creating new knowledge and educating people has in making the world a better place: through social mobility, technological developments, enriching our culture, and contributing to well-being and prosperity. We enjoy being part of an enlightened, thinking community, where discourse, analysis and debate are welcomed and where many voices can be heard. We are used to diversity - diversity of knowledge, expertise, opinion; and many universities are truly global in their reach and in their staff and student communities, and/or...
A career based on careful decisions for the here, the now and the future
by Kay Biscomb, Associate Dean Faculty of Education, Health and Wellbeing, University of Wolverhampton
I have worked in Education all of my professional career and in HE for the last 22 years. Very little of my career has been in response to a mapped out strategic plan but rather best described as careful decisions made for the here and now and the immediate future. I trained as a secondary school teacher and very early on decided that I would rather teach adults. That I knew would require me to have further degrees and I gained my first masters which was subject specific from Warwick University. In order to pragmatically achieve this I took a 0.1...
