Of the Top 200 Universities in the World, 28 Have Women Leaders

A new study presented at the British Council’s Going Global Conference in London found that of the 200 top universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, only 28 are led by women. And the study noted that the number will soon drop to 26 this summer as men take over the top spots from women at the University of Alberta and the University of Miami.

If we consider only the universities ranking in the top 50 worldwide, women lead seven of these institutions. They are Drew Gilpin Faust at Harvard, Alice Gast at Imperial College London, Amy Gutmann at the University of Pennsylvania, Ana Marie Cauce at the University of Washington, Phyllis Wise at the University of Illinois, Rebecca Blank at the University of Wisconsin, and Suzanne Fortier at McGill University in Montreal.

The study found that 46 percent of the women who lead the top universities are social scientists. Among men presidents of the top 200 universities worldwide, 23 percent are social scientists. Some 18 percent of the women leading top 200 universities are in natural science fields.

Of the 28 nations that have at least one of the 200 leading universities on their soil, 19 have no women as university presidents. The United States has 74 of the world’s top universities in the global rankings and 13 of these are led by women.