Q&A with Lydia Rohmer - Principal of UHI North, West and Hebrides

Thinking back to the time you joined Scotland’s college sector, how successful do you feel we’ve been in removing barriers to the professional advancement of female staff?
 
Since joining Scotland’s college sector almost 30 years ago in 1996, I have witnessed significant progress in creating a more inclusive and supportive environment for women. Over the years, we have seen more female representation in leadership roles, a stronger focus on equal opportunities, and a cultural shift towards recognising and valuing the contributions of women. Colleges now have well-developed, family-friendly policies, with significantly enhanced benefits for women, in areas such as maternity/paternity, care, adoption support, or to support health and wellbeing. Other targeted areas include the menopause and mental health, and recognition of gender-based violence. Post-Covid, working practices have catered for more hybrid and flexible working, which particularly benefits women. While these changes are commendable, there is still work to be done to ensure that every woman, regardless of background or personal circumstances, has a fair chance to advance professionally. Despite best efforts in the UK, there is still a gaping equal pay gap for women.
 
Which barriers did you experience in your own professional journey to becoming a college principal and how did you overcome them?
 
Like many women in leadership, my journey to becoming a college principal was not without its challenges. I joined the college sector as a young woman with a very young child, making a sideways step from the university sector. My first post was as a temporary lecturer, covering a colleague’s maternity leave. On my journey to becoming principal, I progressed through all roles in between – lecturer, senior lecturer, head of department, Assistant Principal/Dean of Faculty, Director of Curriculum and then Principal. Working in a college which reflected very male-dominated industries in Building and Printing, I encountered a number of biases in line with societal expectations of women, alongside historical underrepresentation of women in senior roles. I was lucky to work with a fantastic female senior manager, who acted as my role model, and, at executive leadership level, enlightened male colleagues who highly valued inclusive policy and practices. But I also overcame these challenges through personal persistence, helped perhaps also because I came to Scotland from my native Bavaria to study and subsequently work in Glasgow, and had to carve a pathway for myself, building my own professional and personal support networks. I also pursued continuous professional development, and sought out strong mentors who could provide sound feedback and who helped me build confidence to take forward new projects and apply for posts with more responsibilities.  Creating supportive networks and actively participating in senior leadership programmes with the SFEU (the forerunner of CDN), and at executive level with Advance HE, also played a crucial role in my development.
 
What does your own experience tell you about the success (or otherwise) of efforts to remove barriers to the professional advancement of female staff at Scotland’s colleges? 
 
From my experience, efforts to remove barriers have had a positive impact, but they have not yet eradicated all obstacles. While we now see more women in leadership positions, the pace of change remains uneven. While there is an almost equal gender balance of College Principals, this is not the case with College Boards, with very few female College Chairs. There are still challenges related to work-life balance - in particular, the availability and affordability of childcare for children aged 0-2, unconscious bias in hiring and promotion processes, and ensuring that women from diverse backgrounds have equitable access to senior opportunities. However, the increased awareness and commitment to gender equality in the sector are encouraging signs that we are on the right path.
 
Thinking about gender, which barriers would you say continue to get in the way of creating a truly level professional playing field for college employees?
 
Despite progress, several barriers continue to hinder a truly level professional playing field.  These include:

•    Unconscious Bias: Gender-based assumptions about leadership styles, competency, and career ambitions still exist.
•    Work-Life Balance Expectations: Women often face additional challenges in balancing professional ambitions with family responsibilities, and flexible or hybrid work arrangements are not always universally accessible.
•    Lack of Role Models and Mentorship: While representation is improving, there are still fewer female role models in top leadership roles compared to their male counterparts.
•    The Confidence Gap: Women are sometimes less likely to put themselves forward for promotions or leadership roles due to societal conditioning and historical gender norms. I often encounter women who are more than qualified to apply for a senior role, but would not put themselves forward unless they can tick every single requirement in the job description. Women still suffer from ‘impostor syndrome’ much more readily than their male colleagues.
 
How can we remove these remaining barriers?
 
To address these barriers, I would suggest we must take a proactive and sustained approach for our college sector:

•    Continued Commitment to Mentorship and Leadership Development: We should focus on encouraging and supporting women to pursue leadership opportunities through structured mentoring programmes. Women-only leadership programmes such as Advance HE’s Aurora Programme are particularly helpful in building peer-support networks and mentoring opportunities for women who wish to progress into senior leadership roles.
•    Embedding Gender Equality in Policies and Practices: We should ensure fair and transparent recruitment, retention, and promotion processes that actively mitigate bias. I think a lot of work has been done working with colleagues in trade unions on family-friendly policies, and work is under way on a fair work framework for the college sector which I hope will continue and conclude soon.
•    Supporting Work-Life Balance: We should strengthen flexible working policies and make them available at all career levels. There is still a way to go before we see job share or part-time Principal and CEO roles routinely available, including for women.
•    Encouraging Confidence and Ambition: Providing targeted leadership training and career coaching to empower women to seek out and embrace leadership opportunities will be important for many to be able to develop confidence in their talent, and take on a more senior role.
 
How do you – and how does UHI North, West and Hebrides, Scotland’s newest college – ensure that gender is not a barrier for employees who want to advance professionally?  
 
At UHI North, West and Hebrides, we are committed to ensuring gender is not a barrier to professional advancement. We have clear policies promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion, and we actively support career progression through mentoring, leadership development, and open discussions on gender issues. I am proud that we have one of the most generous maternity policies in the sector. As a college that is distributed across 19 rural and island campuses and college centres across the Highlands and Outer Hebrides, we employ a large workforce with many working part-time. We have embraced maximum flexibility in working practices with both flexible and hybrid working, supporting all of our staff with more family-friendly approaches to work-life balance. We support female talent into senior leadership by annually funding several places on Advance HE’s Aurora Programme. These are designed specifically to support women into leadership, and to support staff through access to CDN’s leadership programmes. With a wider senior management team which is more than half female, we aim to lead by example, foster a culture of empowerment and fairness, and contribute to a future where gender no longer dictates professional success.