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Representation remains an important benchmark, but its significance goes beyond numbers alone. As EUA’s work on leadership development shows, tackling persistent barriers to diverse leadership is a strategic imperative for Europe’s universities.
Despite sustained efforts to advance gender equality in higher education, women remain under-represented in senior leadership positions across Europe and globally.
While women constitute a substantial share of academic staff, they account for only around 30% of higher education leaders worldwide. In Europe, progress has been uneven and fragile, with leadership positions still shaped by structural barriers related to career progression, organisational cultures and access to leadership development opportunities.
These figures matter. They point to persistent inequalities that require continued attention. But they also raise a broader strategic question for Europe’s universities: whose experiences inform institutional visions, as well as cultures and approaches to transformation?
This question also keeps coming to the fore in the European University Association’s work to support the leaders of our member universities across Europe, including as part of a previous EU-funded project on innovative leadership and change management in higher education (NEWLEAD). And not least, the recent pilot edition of EUA’s Leadership Development Programme (LDP), which was designed with a strong female leadership dimension from the outset, has given us new insight on the daily realities of the women who are steering universities through a rapidly evolving higher education and research sector.
Across these initiatives, one key conclusion stands out: advancing female leadership in higher education requires moving beyond representation alone. This calls for closer attention to leadership as a lived experience, shaped by personal journeys, institutional cultures, moments of transition and, at times, vulnerability. At the same time, we must recognise leadership as a force that actively shapes institutional visions, cultures and strategic approaches to transformation.
As we rolled out the Leadership Development Programme, the journeys shared by women leaders repeatedly highlighted the realities of navigating transformation under conditions within their institutions of resistance, financial constraint and deeply embedded cultures. Indeed, this reflects a recurring insight from leadership research and practice: strategy alone is insufficient if not accompanied by sustained work on trust, values and culture. Leadership, in practice, often unfolds in the space between formal authority and informal influence.
Within the pilot EUA LDP, these realities were never treated as a parallel or symbolic dimension. The involvement of highly experienced women leaders from across Europe in shaping the programme ensured that female leadership was structurally embedded in its design and delivery.
As such, our programme deliberately created space for reflection on leadership beyond technical skills or formal roles. Contributions from the women leaders of EUA member universities foregrounded non-linear career paths, turning points, moments of doubt and negotiation and the often-invisible labour involved in leadership.
They shared concrete examples of leading large-scale and complex institutional transformations – from embedding equity, diversity and inclusion strategies and advancing sustainability agendas, to strengthening international collaboration and steering digital transformation. Importantly, they also spoke openly about what proved difficult: institutional resistance, competing expectations, moments of uncertainty and the challenge of balancing strategic ambition with personal resilience.
This holistic, grounded perspective on leadership strongly resonates with earlier findings from the NEWLEAD project, which highlighted the growing importance of relational, reflective and distributed leadership in navigating institutional change.
Systemic change often requires persistence, coalition-building and the ability to combine strategic clarity with empathy and resilience. But this challenges dominant narratives of leadership as uninterrupted progression, individual authority or constant availability. Rather, leadership is an evolving practice, shaped by experience, context and values.
In this sense, leadership development becomes not only a matter of capacity-building, but also of legitimising reflection, uncertainty and learning as integral elements of leadership practice. For many participants in EUA’s pilot LDP, these exchanges were more than analytical discussions. Hearing experienced female leaders speak candidly about the challenges they have overcome, the difficult negotiations they have led and the strategic trade-offs they have weighed created powerful moments of identification and inspiration. Visible role models matter – as proof that complex leadership trajectories are possible, but they can also reignite confidence, strengthen and provide orientation during demanding periods of institutional transformation.
Crucially, leadership journeys do not only shape individual leaders; they also shape institutions. Experiences of navigating complexity, resistance or competing expectations influence how leaders define priorities, relate to their communities and approach institutional change.
Women leaders bring perspectives shaped by diverse experiences into strategic decision making, influencing how universities articulate their missions, balance efficiency with values and engage with long-term transformation agendas. This is particularly relevant at a time when universities are expected to respond simultaneously to digitalisation, sustainability, research assessment reform, equity, diversity and inclusion and intensified international competition.
Leadership is not neutral. It shapes institutional cultures, governance practices and strategic choices. When leadership remains narrow in its composition, the range of perspectives informing these processes is equally constrained. This is precisely why ensuring a more balanced representation of women in senior leadership across higher education is so important.
Diverse leadership is not only a matter of equity or fairness; it is a strategic necessity for universities that are navigating complex transformation agendas. Indeed, it broadens the perspectives shaping institutional visions and transformation pathways, enhancing universities’ capacity to navigate complexity, uncertainty and change.
Global research (UNESCO) suggests that leadership approaches often associated with women leaders place stronger emphasis on collaboration, inclusion and learning-oriented cultures, although such differences are neither universal nor essential. What matters is not attributing fixed leadership styles to gender, but recognising that diverse leaders expand the repertoire of approaches available to their institutions, a critical asset in times of accelerated transformation.
These insights carry important implications for higher education and research institutions and policy makers alike. Findings from the NEWLEAD project underline that leadership development in Europe remains uneven and often informal, with limited systemic support across many national systems. EUA’s Leadership Development Programme demonstrates the value of structured programmes that combine strategic reflection, peer learning and attention to leadership identities, values and well-being.
Ensuring balanced representation in leadership requires sustained investment in leadership development, mentoring and institutional frameworks that support diverse leadership trajectories. It also calls for our sector to review recruitment, recognition and support structures to ensure that leadership roles are compatible with sustainable working practices and inclusive institutional cultures.
Female leadership in higher education is not simply about increasing numbers. It is about expanding the horizons of institutional transformation. By listening carefully to these experiences, institutions and systems can better understand why diverse leadership is essential to building more resilient, inclusive and forward-looking universities. Over the coming months we look forward to sharing perspectives from some of the women leaders who, as well as shaping the future of their own universities, are making integral contributions to EUA’s work to foster representative, resilient and transformative leadership across the European higher education sector.
