Category: News

🌟 What an inspiring Victorian State Chapter Day for the WATTLE community! 🌟 We are delighted to reflect on a truly energising day of learning, connection and shared purpose. Thank you to everyone who joined us and contributed to the warm, collaborative spirit that defines our WATTLE network. We extend our heartfelt appreciation to our exceptional…

⌛ In just over 3 weeks our 2025 WATTLE Leadership Program (Women ATTaining LEadership) Academic Program will commence! We’re thrilled to be welcoming academic staff from across the country to join us on our final program for the year. With a jam-packed schedule, we’ll be introducing our speakers over coming days – let us know…

We’ve been overwhelmed and delighted with the response to our upcoming webinar – The Voice of Australia’s Universities – taking place in mid-November! There’s still room for more to attend, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to hear from University Australia leaders, Carolyn Evans, Chair of Universities Australia Luke Sheehy, CEO of UA, and…

🥁 Drumroll please….. WATTLE Leadership Program (Women ATTaining LEadership) is delighted to announce the launch of our Level C Academic Leadership Program, supporting mid-career women academics as they transition into more strategic leadership roles within the university sector. This program has been developed in response to a recognised gap in professional development opportunities for Level…

Join us for the second webinar in the Leadership Unfolded series, a collaborative initiative by WATTLE and Women-Space, designed to support and elevate women leaders in Australian higher education.  This session will explore the often-unspoken realities of senior leadership – dealing with the fallout from unpopular decisions, navigating incivility and bullying in the workplace, managing…

On Friday 18 July, we hosted the latest instalment in our WATTLE webinar series, launching a new theme: Leadership Unfolded. Kicking off this series was our first session, Women on Boards, featuring esteemed speakers Claire Braund OAM and Dr Sue Barrell AO FTSE. The discussion was facilitated by Professor Virginia Kilborn, WATTLE Founder and Chief…

WATTLE Leadership Program (Women ATTaining LEadership) is delighted to share that our program and founders, Rosemary Stockdale, Helana Scheepers, Linda Adnyana, Virginia Kilborn and Birgit Loch have been nominated for a Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) Outstanding Collaborator award! Congratulations also to one of our WATTLE alum, Gail Crimmins, for their nomination in the…

The 2025 WATTLE program is off to a fantastic start! Two inspiring days filled with insights, reflections, and generous sharing from sector leaders. A big thank you to our speakers so far. Day 1 kicked off with Rohenna Young, who enabled participants to connect and feel inspired. Day 2 continued with a keynote on strategic…

According to the 2024 UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report, women remain under-represented in higher education leadership – both globally and locally. “Although there are more women higher education students than men, women are under-represented in senior leadership positions… with many remaining in middle leadership roles and rarely appointed as vice-chancellors.” The barriers are complex: family responsibilities,…

WATTLE Alumnae Symposium 2025 29 April 2025 This week, we were delighted to welcome around 50 women from across the WATTLE community to our third Alumnae Symposium, hosted at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. It was a meaningful opportunity to reconnect, share experiences, and continue growing the vibrant network of leaders that WATTLE…

The final day of the Universities Australia #UASolutionsSummit25 has been very busy. Professor Pascale Quester, Vice-Chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology came by the booth to say hello to both WATTLE Leadership Program (Women ATTaining LEadership) and Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE). Swinburne University of Technology has been a great supporter of WATTLE since its…

We recently commenced our 2024 Academic Program.Our gratitude extends to the WATTLE Speaker Nomination Committee for their role in crafting an incredible program with an impressive line up of speakers. Our Academic Program speaker committee includes:

Our Academic Program participants are making their way to Melbourne to commence our 2024 Program! Attendees will be joining us from 17 institutions round the country including:

WATTLE’s Women Attaining Leadership Program was recently featured in Sally Kift’s national Needed Now in Learning and Teaching newsletter. We are all immensely proud of this program and the results it is showing in building leaders in the Australian university sector. Read the full newsletter here.

Last week we welcomed 2024 WATTLE Combined Program delegates to Brisbane. Attendees attended the program launch, meeting Rosemary Stockdale, one of the WATTLE Program Founders and Rita Cincotta, Program Facilitator. It was also a fantastic opportunity to meet delegates from universities around Australia. Professor Rosemary Stockdale was the Dean (Engagement) at Griffith Business School, Griffith…

A huge thank you to our WATTLE Speaker Nomination Committee for our Combined Program which commences next week.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be sharing feedback from participants in our recent Professional Program, which was held a few weeks ago. We’re delighted to share that 87% of our 32 attendees rated their overall experience as excellent, with the remaining 13% noting it has very good. Stay up to date with us on LinkedIn…

Building upon the success of our long-running Academic and Professional Program, WATTLE will be facilitating our first ‘Combined Program’ in September in Brisbane this year. This program is open for individual applications from both professional and academic leaders meeting the criteria who are currently employed in Australian universities or research institutions. Topics will include career…

The research, led by Nanna Mik-Meyer and Margaretha Järvinen, delves into the unequal distribution of service work between men and women in academic settings. Despite familiarity with gender imbalances, the study’s findings surprised even the researchers themselves. Through 163 interviews with associate professors and professors in Denmark, the research uncovered a stark reality: women tend…

Wonderful to see several of our WATTLE program alumni from the University of New England (AU) featuring in a blog late last year speaking about their “transformative” experiences participating in the 2023 Academic program. Susie Hester, Clara Murray, Jennifer McDonell, Sarah Wayland and Erica Smith share insights regarding leadership, strategy, professional development and the importance…

We are so pleased to celebrate the extension of the Te Manahua NZ Universities Women in Leadership (NZUWiL) programme. Having reached its 15 year milestone the Te Manahua NZUWiL program has recently received a further 5 years of funding from the Universities NZ Vice-Chancellors’ Committee. In the early days of WATTLE, the NZUWiL leaders were…

A massive congratulations to the Victorian State Chapter leads Associate Professor Loretta Konjarski and Professor Samantha Richardson for organising the inaugural event for the WATTLE Program Victorian State Chapter. It was attended by 50 alumnae and guests and they heard from distinguished speakers which included the keynote speaker Kate Roffey AM, Professor Helana Scheepers, Ahlam…

We recently completed our June Professional Women’s Residential Leadership Program. The feedback we have received has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are thrilled to share some of the highlights and comments we received: “Congratulations to the organisers for a wonderful four days of learning.” “Everything was AMAZING! Very well organised and facilitated. The most valuable…

We are delighted to announce our inclusion on page 86 of a recent report shedding light on the general inequalities in Australian universities. Titled Gender inclusive practices and work-life balance in Australian Universities, this report, unveiled in December 2022, represents a significant milestone in our ongoing quest for gender equality Commissioned by Universities Australia, the…