EQUALITY GUIdE - KU Leuven

130 Equality Guide
an expression of respect towards the former employee but also provide the management
with unique feedback on the lock, stock and barrel of the institution. As all institutions
and organisations world-wide, especially highly competitive settings, are confronted
with a gender gap in career advancement, exit-surveys prove to be a useful tool
to pinpoint the obstacles women experience and can help to take apt measures to
make highly talented employees stay.
5.5.1. Prospects for further research
! Although both PhD-students and other employees were contacted and the respondents
differed greatly in age, only junior researchers and post-docs returned the
completed questionnaire. In future applications of this instrument it would be advisable
to try to reach former employees who held a professorship, but left the university
nevertheless.
! In the questionnaire, the researchers were asked whether they wanted to return to
Ghent University or not. The answers given during the interview sometimes differed
from the filled-in answers. As mentioned above, it might be useful to put the question
more specifically, e.g. whether they wish to advance their career in university or
not.
! As the goal of this research was to obtain a general view of the reasons to leave
Ghent University and the gender differences in work satisfaction and career development,
both former employees who wanted to advance their career at Ghent University
and researchers who voluntarily left Ghent University were interviewed. Future
research could either deal with a selected group of respondents who did not
think of an academic career from the start, in order to get a better view of the reasons
to quit, or with a group of respondents who wanted to advance their careers in
the academic world but could not, in order to get a better view of the obstacles they
came across. However, the problem with the latter group is that many do not know
whether they could or would make the efforts to stay. When a position would be
offered to them, they would like to continue, but many are wary of the potential job
insecurity afterwards. A quantitative survey, based on this qualitative research and
addressed to all departing employees could provide a solution.
! As this qualitative survey primarily dealt with past experiences and opinions on
gender in academic circles, it is advisable to complement this study with a quantitative
research in order to study the importance of personal contacts, the number of
publications, full-time work, international experience, role models or visibility for the
advancement of a career in academic circles. In addition, it would be recommended
to interview not only male and female employees who have left the institution,
but also researchers who are still employed. In this way, issues such as the
work-life balance and necessity of networks and support could be investigated from
a different perspective.