Gender equality
Visit from IGAB
At the end of November, the University of Southern Denmark was visited by SDU’s International Gender Advisory Board (IGAB), which over two days provided SDU with constructive recommendations and reflections in relation to the strategic diversity, inclusion and gender equality work that takes place at the University.
On 29–30 November, seven members of SDU’s International Gender Advisory Board (IGAB) received a warm welcome on their annual visit to the University. Every year, the IGAB members visit SDU with inspiring, qualifying and critical feedback on the University’s central and local work with diversity, inclusion and equality.
The board members are from major universities at home and abroad, such as MIT in the US and Cambridge in the UK. Their visit involves several professional elements, including a masterclass and a review meeting with SDU’s Executive Board, in which they act as a critical friend to SDU’s management.
Value-creating discussion
Liv Baisner Petersen, head of SDU’s Gender Equality Team (GET), explains that the masterclass is attended by participants from the local and central gender equality committees at the University of Southern Denmark.
- Each local gender equality committee presents a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, IGAB reflects on questions from the committees and then there is discussion in the local gender equality committees. Each committee has their own IGAB member who follows the specific committee year after year and provides individual deliberation based on the issues and initiatives being worked on locally, which vary greatly.
- It’s definitely valuable to have a more direct dialogue with the accomplished experts from home and abroad. They’ve qualified the strategic diversity, inclusion and gender equality work we’re doing at SDU – they’re superb value creators, says Liv Baisner Petersen.
Praise for SDU’s management
Ole Skøtt, chair of SDU’s central Gender Equality Committee and dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, and the rest of SDU’s Executive Board participated in a review meeting with IGAB, where previous recommendations from IGAB members were summarised and the Executive Board received input on current strategic initiatives.
Ole Skøtt says that the work on diversity, inclusion and gender equality initiatives at the University of Southern Denmark was highly commended.
- There was a lot of praise, especially because they could see that many of last year’s recommendations have been put into action in specific initiatives. The members generally seemed very pleased with the highly motivated local committees, and I’m convinced that they also take home inspiration for their own work from each other and our other GET activities at SDU.
- It was also nice to have further discussions and recommendations, and it confirmed that we’re on the right track with many things, says Ole Skøtt.