Until just over a year ago there had been no female university president in 428 years of higher education in Ireland.
Today there are four; Prof Eeva Leinonen is the latest woman to take that step after taking over as president of Maynooth University last Friday.
In a sector where women are heavily under-represented in senior levels, it is likely to be seen by many as a watershed moment.
However, Prof Leinonen, a Finnish academic who previously led Murdoch University in Perth, is not getting carried away just yet.
“Being the first female president at Maynooth University is not everything, but it’s not nothing,” she says. “You know, it’s an important milestone for Maynooth University and it’s an important milestone for the higher education sector.”
It shows younger generations that it is possible for women to progress in their career, have a family and take on a leadership role. “I have a daughter. I have a life. It is possible,” she says.
However, she acknowledges there is still a long way to go to reach gender balance at senior levels.
She says Maynooth – where 34 per cent of professors are female, the highest proportion in Ireland – will continue to take further steps to advance gender equality. This will involve dismantling everyday barriers that can hinder women’s progress.
“If you want to go on maternity leave for a few years, what happens to your laboratories and your labs? . . . you actually need support for that too. So there’s very practical things that universities can do and are doing,” says Prof Leinonen, whose background in is linguistics and psychology.
Prof Leinonen takes over from Prof Philip Nolan, who led the university for the past decade and, in more recent times, has become a familiar face as a senior member of the National Public Health Emergency Team.
He is widely credited with shaking up the college’s curriculum by broadening students’ access to a range of subject options – an approach since adopted by many other institutions; overseeing rapid growth of the university; and forging more international links.
As for her plans for Maynooth’s future, Prof Leinonen says she is in listening mode ahead of the university’s new strategic plan next year when it celebrates its 25th birthday.
“I do see Maynooth University already as a strong civic university, and very closely connected to its local, regional, and national communities,” she says.
“It is the only university in this locality and region – and it is a growing region. So, it’s in a very good position to seize opportunities that are attached to that location, but also the academic excellence, the inclusive nature of the university – all of that is there to build on.”
Maynooth, like many other Irish universities, has forged links with China recently: its partnership with Fuzhou University will see 1,200 Chinese science and engineering students graduate with its qualifications over the coming years.
Such links are under closer scrutiny as critics accuse colleges of compromising their principles over issues such as academic freedom.
Prof Leinonen, however, says she is “very comfortable” that the academic content and the standards of the courses are overseen by Maynooth’s governing authority.
In the meantime, Irish universities say a combination of rising student numbers, a recruitment freeze and Covid costs means they urgently need a sustainable business model.
If her role as a university leader in Australia – which has a long-established student loan scheme – gives her insights into it whether such a system could work here, she's not saying just yet.
“I’m mindful about the fact that funding policies and decisions sit within a national, cultural, social, political economic context,” she says. “I’m very mindful about the fact that I don’t know the Irish context that well.”
She believes that whatever long-term solution is found will need to prioritise equity of access to education.
“That fundamental principle is something that I believe in. How it’s realised in different national contexts is up for discussion and debate.”
