Østfold University College was singled out as "best in class" when it came to gender balance among employees with top competence (Khrono, 12.09.19). Rector Lars-Petter Jelsness-Jørgensen pointed to systematic work to create equal opportunities regardless of gender and the university college's KvinnForsk initiative as crucial for an approximate gender balance among professors and lecturers. Despite the positive development in terms of top competence, the annual report from 2019 shows an under-representation of women in male-dominated subject areas, lower average salaries and a higher degree of part-time employment among women, which was also confirmed by the rector in the interview with Khrono.
Participation in the BalanseHub network together with funding from the Research Council of Norway provided Østfold University College with an opportunity to establish a project aiming at sharing knowledge, documenting and further develop the good initiatives and practices that already exist, and in addition work to bring the gender balance perspective into management dialogue and organizational structure. The project From «best in class» to systematic work for gender balance (BESK) is anchored at one of the university college's faculties, at the same time as participation in the BalanceHub network where experiences, ideas and results are exchanged and involvement of remaining faculties and management locally also represents key parts of the project.
In connection with the project start, information about the BESK project was sent out in a monthly letter from the dean of the then department of health and welfare, project manager and project member attended and informed at staff meetings on several of the college's former departments, the project was described and project manager interviewed in a post on the university college's website and a popular science article were published in the local newspaper Fredrikstad Blad and on the research administration's blog. As part of the information, an open invitation was issued to employees at the university college, preferably members of KvinnForsk, to participate in the project group and / or in the project.
In the first part of the project, the project group consisting of nine members has mainly worked with the most comprehensive work packages where an evaluation of the network for female researchers (KvinnForsk) is to be carried out, as well as of the mentoring activities organized by the same network. As part of the evaluations, interview guides, information sheets and consent forms have been prepared. The project group's members have paired up with the project manager and conducted individual interviews and focus group interviews with representatives of previous and current department management, former and current head of KvinnForsk, members of KvinnForsk, as well as mentors and employees who have taken part in the mentoring activities. Common to all the interviews was that the interviewees were invited to share experiences with, reflections and input related to participation in the research network and / or mentoring, and with the theme of gender balance in research more generally. The interest in participating in the interviews was good, and there is agreement in the project group that the interviews have generated a lot of interesting and relevant data. All interviews have now been transcribed and the project group is at the starting point of the analysis work. The plan is to form pairs that will analyze each dataset, and then a third project participant will ensure continuity and a common thread in the analysis method for the dataset as a whole.
The result of the analysis work will also be the starting point for "best practice" descriptions for running a network for female researchers in competence pathways (such as KvinnForsk) as well as for mentoring schemes for the same target group. On the of 1st August 2021, a new academic organization of Østfold University College came into force, and the BESK project will work to integrate gender balance as part of the management dialogue and as a more explicit focus area in the new organizational structure.
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I 2019 ble Høgskolen i Østfold omtalt som best i klassen når det gjaldt kjønnsbalanse blant dosenter og professorer (Khrono, september 2019). Til tross for en god kjønnsbalanse blant ansatte med toppkompetanse, viser HiØ's årsrapport fra 2019 at kvinner fortsatt er underrepresentert innen mannsdominerte fagområder som ingeniørfag og informasjonsteknologi. Videre viser årsrapporten at kvinner har gjennomsnittlig lavere lønn enn menn i samtlige stillingskategorier og at bruken av deltid er høyere for kvinner. Prosjekt BESK vil bidra til å skape en bedre kjønnsbalanse og styrke likestillingen i hele organisasjonen.
Som en del av nettverket og BalanseHub, vil prosjektet bidra til bedre kjønnsbalanse gjennom å dele erfaringer med allerede eksisterende aktiviteter som drift av KvinnForsk samt mentorvirksomheten organisert av det samme nettverket. Deling av erfaringer vil gjøres med utgangspunkt i evalueringen av KvinnForsk som lokalt nettverk for kvinnelige forskere og mentorvirksomheten hvor kvinnelige forskere i kompetanseløp får tilbud om veiledning. Erfaringsoppsummeringer eller "best practice"-beskrivelser vil utarbeides for å muliggjøre erfaringsdeling både lokalt ved Høgskolen i Østfold, gjennom BalanseHub samt på arenaer og for aktører utenfor nettverket.
Den pågående omorganiseringsprosessen representerer en arena hvor det avgjørende å få kjønnsbalanse-perspektiv integrert som en del av organisasjonskultur så vel som organisasjonsstruktur ved Høgskolen i Østfold. Konkret vil prosjektet arbeide for at kjønnsbalanseperspektivet skal tas inn som del av styringsdialogen i det kontinuerlig organisasjonsarbeidet og i prosesser med omorganisering. I forbindelse med den pågående omorganiseringen vil prosjektet bidra til at kjønnsbalanse inkluderes i arbeidet med å etablere nye rutiner, råd og utvalg og deres mandat, både på organisasjons- og fakultetsnivå.
