Colloquium of senior women in Australian higher education

The Colloquium was established in 1995 when the presidents of all Australian universities agreed to a proposal that the most senior women in higher education should meet nationally in order to exchange information and support, and has operated since then as an effective virtual organisation. The first meeting's decision to establish a national network for senior university women was recommended to and subsequently endorsed by the combined presidents of all Australian universities since the formation of such a group was considered timely and useful given the continued under representation of women at more senior levels both within individual universities and across the higher education sector nationally.

While there has not yet been any formal evaluation to identify the effectiveness of this initiative, it is acknowledged both by the growing number of senior women who make up its membership, and by the AVCC itself, to have performed very successfully in terms of its four foundation objectives. Through the Colloquium the steadily increasing number of women at the most senior levels have instant access to all other senior women in the sector, and therefore contacts at senior levels in almost every university in the country. This provides an immediate source of information, advice, support, insights, and understanding about what is happening in higher education at both the institutional and national levels. It also counteracts the isolation identified in the international literature as a debilitating feature of the professional lives of women in leadership positions, an isolation which is compounded in Australia by the size and geography of our continent.

Both the Colloquium itself and some of its more tangible achievement, such as the AVCC's electronic Register of Senior University Women and its Action Plan for Women in the Higher Education Sector, have significantly increase the visibility and hence impact of senior women across the sector by making their names, contribution and expertise more widely known. And our resulting increased representation on key sector wide committees, boards and other fora has significantly increased the effectiveness and impact of women's policy voices locally, nationally and to some extent internationally.

¹The Colloquium's objectives remain those adopted at its establishment , as follows:

To improve the representation of women in policy and decision-making positions in higher education;
To provide an opportunity at the national level for networking, information exchange and sponsorship amongst women in higher education at senior levels;
To identify and monitor the responsibilities, expertise and representation of women working at senior levels in Australian universities;
To provide leadership and coordinated advice at the national level on significant issues, as appropriate.

The Colloquium's achievements in terms of each of these objectives are analysed in the paper given at the Second European Conference on Gender Equity in Higher Education, held in Zurich, September 12 - 15, 2000. See Ramsay, 2000, pp. 8-10.

²AVCC's electronic Register of Senior University Women: Established by the AVCC, following prompting to do so from the Colloquium, the goal of which is to improve the representation of women in policy and decision-making positions by making their experience and expertise more widely known and available within the university, government and business sectors. It currently provides contact details, duties, classification, position, areas of special expertise/interest and committee membership of over 3,900 senior university women. In the AVCC's own words, this Register therefore "facilitates the utilisation of the enormous wealth of expert knowledge and experience of senior university women in making appointments to committees, advisory panels and other influential positions by all sectors".

³AVCC's Action Plan for Women in the Higher Education sector [.pdf]