Universities Australia Chief Executive Belinda Robinson said the guide was a terrific new resource to accelerate the progress made on lifting leadership appointments of women.

“As the guide notes, diversity is important not only for fairness – but also because it shapes good decision-making, better organisational results and more effectively run organisations,” she said.

The guide, which was launched today at the Universities Australia annual Higher Education Conference, was developed by UAEW and executive recruitment firm Fisher Leadership.

Launching the guide today, UAEW Co-Chair Professor Kerri-Lee Krause said the work of advancing women in leadership roles was everyone’s business.

“We wanted to develop a very practical resource that would help university leaders and human resources teams to achieve our shared goal of seeing more women in leadership roles,” she said.

UAEW Co-Chair Professor Marcia Devlin said the group had consulted widely in the university sector to road-test and refine the guidelines to ensure they would be highly effective.

Fisher Leadership managing director and Founder Jo Fisher said her firm was delighted to partner with UAEW to develop and launch the guidelines today.

“It’s not only this sector – it’s across all sectors – and it’s a key principle of positive leadership that we should seek to bring more women into leadership appointments,” she said.

You can download the guide at Best practice recruitment guidelines to fast forward the advancement of women in Australian university executive appointments.