Women seeking to prepare for senior roles in the HE sector have a fresh set of resources available through a new website developed by WATTLE, an intensive grass-roots leadership development and networking program.
Established in 2018 the WATTLE program empowers women to attain and succeed in senior university leadership roles.
Based on a similar long-standing NZ program, WATTLE is now in Australia thanks to a small group of highly-committed volunteer senior academic and professional university staff. It brings together women, identified by their institutions as future senior leaders, in an immersive residential experience with speakers from across the HE sector, and beyond. Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp, Professor Marcia Devlin, Professor John Dewar, Professor Kerri-Lee Krause, Professor Brian Schmidt and Dr Niki Vincent are just a few examples.
WATTLE has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and now involves 17 universities across Australia, with an alumni network of over 200 women, promoting continuous learning and collaboration across the sector. Results show it is contributing to the increase in representation of women in senior leadership positions, aligning directly to SAGE program outcomes.
A new and refreshed website launched recently providing greater insight into the foundations of the program, member universities and participant testimonials. The success of the program has resulted in additional offerings in 2024, and WATTLE invites existing member universities and those not currently involved to explore the opportunity to involve high potential women in future programs.
For more information, please contact WATTLE_Admin@swin.edu.au
