Institutional Support Strategies for Academic Career Progression among Female Lecturers: A Case of Kyambogo University of Uganda

Abstract

Supporting the academic career progression of female lecturers has a positive impact on gender equality within society because universities play a big role in shaping society and building active citizens based on the fact many people who take up powerful roles in society have a background in higher education. It can also enhance their participation in higher education leadership because leadership qualities and potential in higher education are tied to academic rank. However, there is a low academic career progression of female lecturers at Kyambogo University. This qualitative study set out to examine the support strategies employed by the Kyambogo University of Uganda to advance the academic career progression of female lecturers. The study was positioned within an interpretative paradigm and employed a phenomenological approach to uncover the female academics’ experiences. Both semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis data generation strategies were used in this study. In semi-structured interviews, a sample comprising eight female academics with not less than five years at the rank of a lecturer at Kyambogo University were selected, while documents such as the Human Resources Manual which enshrines the policy that guides the promotion of staff in the university and the Gender Policy were analysed. Data were thematically analysed according to phenomenological analysis such as strategies bracketing, clustering into themes, textual description, structural description, and textual-structural essence of the study. The findings which emerged from the study indicate that though the university has some support measures in place, the majority of female academics at Kyambogo University regard the available support strategies as inadequate for instance, most of them have inadequate skills in academic writing, there is inadequate funding of female academics, gender neutral promotional policies, unsatisfactory work environment and scarcity of workshops. The findings further indicate limited women’s academic networks and inadequate mentorship collaboration among academics as the key factors that hamper female lecturers’ academic career progression. The study recommends, among others, academic writing training, adequate funding, and redesigning promotion policies to suit female academic progression.