“It feels very exciting and challenging to have the chance to work at University-wide level on equal opportunities issues, drawing on the experience I have amassed as equal opportunities representative at the Department of Information Technology,” she says.

The most critical challenge in the immediate future concerns accessible digital teaching, because of the pandemic situation, which has led to a great deal of distance education. Moreover, the act on accessibility of digital public services enters into force later in September, which has already affected ongoing work in many information channels for some time.

One of the University’s great strengths

Åsa Cajander’s predecessor as Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor on Equal Opportunities, Cecilia Wejryd, underlined support for students with special needs as one of Uppsala University’s great strengths. She insisted that the University could not be satisfied just because it provides a good environment for nearly 100 per cent of the students.

“I completely agree that we can take pride at the University in our arrangements for students with special needs, but we will continue our long-term attention to these issues, following the same structured approach as under Cecilia’s leadership,” says Cajander.

Gender equality starts out from the work environment

One goal set in the previous Action Plan for Equal Opportunities was that 48 per cent of the newly recruited professors in 2017–2019 would be women. The final outcome was 38 per cent. The significance of specific figures has been downplayed to some extent, while it has been emphasised that attention has to be given to the whole picture so that women will want to become professors in Uppsala, while ensuring that the University retains those who are already professors.

In Cajander’s opinion, efforts to increase the proportion of women in the University’s professorial ranks need to start out from the work environment and the everyday situation of professors.

“Uppsala University takes a long-term perspective in addressing the issues at various levels, and these efforts have to be allowed time if they are to create sustainable change. Other fundamentals that we are tackling include recruitment and skills supply, where there are specific plans, for example, to ensure that recruitment is based on objective criteria and that an awareness of discrimination and bias runs through all stages of the recruitment process.”

Further information about this can be found in the new Gender Mainstreaming Plan for 2020–2022.

Constructive discussion welcome

A recent opinion piece in the newspaper UNT criticised Uppsala University’s work on gender equality and equal opportunities for in fact following a political agenda.

How difficult is it to work with issues that can so easily be interpreted, from different perspectives, as expressions of ideological opinion?

“It is important that the University’s activities are scrutinised and criticised, and I welcome a constructive discussion of work on equal opportunities. As I see it, an awareness of bias, norms and values plays a crucial role in equal opportunities efforts and we can all become better at reflecting about how they influence us and our behaviour. I look forward to continued discussions on these issues,” says Cajander.