Diversifying Leadership in Elite Universities
Meet the Team
Sarah Aiston
Principal Investigator
Sarah Aiston is a Professor of Higher Education and Public Policy and Director of the Graduate School at Teesside University. Her research coalesces around minority groups in higher education, which includes analysing the position, status, and experiences of women in higher education internationally. Her work challenges commonly held assumptions, which she refers to as dangerous discourses. Such discourses include: the feminisation thesis – the idea that women are somehow ‘taking over’ higher education; and pipeline theory – the idea that the more women become suitably qualified, the more women will move through organizational hierarchies.
Vikki Boliver
Co-Investigator
Vikki Boliver is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Durham University. Her research focuses on social inequalities of access to the most prestigious universities. She is a leading expert on the use of contextual data on the socioeconomic circumstances of prospective university students to inform more equitable admissions decisions.
Bruce Macfarlane
Co-Investigator
Bruce Macfarlane is Chair Professor of Educational Leadership and Dean of the Faculty of Education and Human Development at The Education University of Hong Kong. Professor Macfarlane is a social philosopher of higher education who has developed conceptual frameworks for interpreting academic practice, ethics, and leadership. Applying a mix of empirical and philosophical enquiry, he has helped to define key concepts including academic integrity, academic citizenship, intellectual leadership, and student performativity.
Tanya Fitzgerald
Co-Investigator
Tanya Fitzgerald is Professor of Higher Education and Dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Western Australia. Professor Fitzgerald has held leadership roles in universities in New Zealand, England and Australia. Her research interests focus primarily on histories of women’s higher education, social change, and higher education policy and leadership.
Ayca Gunaydin Kaymakcioglu
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Ayca Gunaydin Kaymakcioglu is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Teesside University, where she contributes to the ESRC-funded project Diversifying Leadership in Elite Universities. Her research examines education policy and gender, the global governance of education, and women’s participation in higher education leadership. She has previously worked on projects addressing gender equality in language teaching and the underrepresentation of women in academic leadership roles.