Sir, – I welcome the report on this matter by Carl O'Brien (News, July 20th). The figures for Trinity College Dublin are certainly unacceptable. At lecturer level there are 50 per cent men and women. This becomes 65 per cent to 35 per cent at senior lecturer level, 58 per cent to 42 per cent at associate professor level and 81 per cent to 19 per cent at full professor level. Clearly something is badly amiss in procedures for academic promotion and clearly we do not yet have promotion on academic merit. No university can prosper in such circumstances.
Trinity College Dublin, like Jesus College, Oxford in 1571, was founded by a woman in 1592 (Queen Elizabeth I of England). Is it too much to hope that we shall see the first woman Provost in 2021? There is no academic reason why not. – Yours, etc,
Dr GERALD
MORGAN, FTCD,
Dublin 2.