CGHE 2026: Navigating the equity crisis in global HE
Date: Thursday, 23 April 2026 9:00 am to Friday, 24 April 2026 5:00 pm.
Location: Department of Education, Oxford, and hybrid
Theme 5: Governance, leadership and democracy (Library Discussion Room)
Diversifying leadership in global higher education
Friday 24 April, 9am – 10.30am
Speakers:
- Professor Sarah Aiston, Professor in Higher Education and Public Policy, Teesside University
- Professor Vikki Boliver, Professor of Sociology, Durham University
- Dr Ayca Gunaydin Kaymakcioglu, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Teesside University
Discussants:
- Professor Angela Yung-chi Hou, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
- David Bass, Director of EDI, Advance HE
- Professor Ka-Ho Mok, Provost and Vice President (Academic & Research), Hang Seng University of Hong Kong
- Jamie Cumming-Wesley, Senior Partner, WittKieffer
Global higher education is confronting a multifaceted crisis, with persistent inequalities and a lack of diversity in senior executive leadership standing out as a critical concern. A cursory glance of the roll call of names across the world’s most elite universities reveal the dominance of predominantly white males in positions of power and influence. But what is our understanding of the biographies of those who lead elite universities globally? And what are the wider implications for diversifying leadership at this level?
This panel will present evidence from the Diversifying Leadership in Elite Universities: The Development of an Empirically Grounded Recruitment Framework for the Global Higher Education Sector project, funded by the ESRC. Currently, the ‘success’ factors that lead to being appointed as a Vice Chancellor/President are obscure. This project seeks to identify and interrogate these success factors to make the implicit explicit; to deconstruct unwritten assumptions and the concept of ‘cultural fit’. Importantly, the role of Executive Search Firms, governing bodies and, in some national contexts, the state in the recruitment process is considered. The analysis of 89 institutions that feature, at least twice, in international rankings (THE, QS, ARWU) reveals that university leaders remain overwhelmingly male, predominantly elite-educated, and frequently promoted from within their own institutions. Advanced statistical techniques highlight patterns of institutional and career ‘in-breeding’. These patterns highlight the structural barriers in recruitment and career progression, shaped by implicit biases and institutional practices. This panel responds directly to these challenges by drawing on findings from the project to interrogate the dynamics of leadership trajectories in elite universities.
This panel will be led by Professor Aiston (Teesside University), Principal Investigator of the ESRC-funded project Diversifying Leadership in Elite Universities. Her research highlights the barriers to diversifying senior leadership and the systemic changes required to foster equality at the highest levels of academia. Invited discussants will bring complementary perspectives from policy, practice, and international contexts. David Bass (Advance HE) will contribute insights from sector-wide equality, diversity, and inclusion initiatives, reflecting on strategies for institutional change. Professor Mok (Hang Seng University of Hong Kong) and Professor Hou (National Chengchi University, Taiwan) will situate the debate in Asian higher education systems, where global competitiveness intersects with social equality. Jamie Cumming-Wesley (WittKieffer) will provide perspectives from executive leadership recruitment, addressing how shifting priorities in Vice-Chancellor/President selection affect opportunities for more diverse leadership pipelines. Together, the panel will critically examine how leadership, recruitment practices, and institutional cultures contribute to, or mitigate, inequalities in higher education. By linking empirical research with practice and international policy perspectives, the session aims to spark dialogue on critical approaches in higher education leadership.
