Quality in higher education is perceived primarily through performance and standards of success. Academic success, in turn, is regulated by various quality mechanisms that produce institutional and individual practices that generate academic subjectivities and a rationality of academia. Recruiting the best, most deserving individuals and ensuring their progression within the field in terms of maintaining and/or improving their qualifications for positions in higher education is fundamental to maintaining the quality of academic work and the academic field as such. Practices that undermine or challenge this rationality are marginalized, excluded, and not adequately discussed. Yet, the expansion of access to higher education for social groups previously denied access and the massification of higher education has exposed complex issues of equity and equality of success and progress within a field. (Yudkevich, Altbac, Rumbley 2015, Eurydice 2022, Eggings 2019) The notion of education as a great equalizer for those from less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, racial minorities, and women has led to debates about equity, justice, and quality that question the conceptualization of quality, its mechanisms, and standards that explicitly or implicitly contribute to exclusion. One of the most important contemporary ideas challenging the concept of existing quality standards in academia and the perception of merit is gender equality. In recent decades, European Union policies have worked to strengthen diversity and inclusion, with gender equality increasingly treated as a priority issue in the last two decades, with a focus on institutional practices of gender equality in higher education, among others. (Gender Equality Strategy 2022 -2025).

In this paper, we present some of the issues related to gender equality/equality standards in higher education, highlighting the case of Slovenia, but also those that go beyond gender equality and highlight the need to rethink the mechanisms that determine the access and advancement of academic staff.

We use Bordieuan's (1977, 1988) theoretical apparatus to outline the equity/equality problem in education, the concept of the field to frame academic practices, and to understand the position of merit in higher education. We then discuss gender equity as a policy issue (in terms of quality assurance and standards) in higher education and in society in terms of its complex genealogy (Popkewitz 2016) in institutional, national, and cultural contexts.

Research Questions:

How do emerging calls for more equal and equitable scholarship correspond with existing quality mechanisms and standards for advancement to academic titles and academic positions?

How do gender and age support or hinder advancement in academic careers at the Faculty of Arts, College of Ljubljana?

The research presented here was partly part of the H2020 project Gearing roles (https://gearingroles.eu/project/).

Research design and sample A quantitative survey design was used for the study. An online questionnaire was introduced and sent to all teaching and research staff at the institution. 149 individuals responded, 40 males, 108 females, and 1 nonbinary individual. The average age of the respondents was 46.6 years. There are two general academic areas for promotion at the College of Ljubljana: the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Of the respondents, 39 were from the social sciences, 110 were from the humanities, and 12 of them were seeking promotion in two areas. The survey showed some contextual differences between them. Data collection and data analysis The data were collected in November 2021. Recipients of the email were given access to an anonymous questionnaire via a link, which they completed and submitted online. The questionnaire contained 13 single and multiple responses about their career path (promotion) and the obstacles they perceive in their career. The data were analyzed using the SPSS 25 software package and presented in frequency tables. The χ2 test was used to test hypotheses about relationships between categorical variables.

The analyses revealed differences between residential areas and differences in gender and age. Some of these differences are a starting point for evidence-based discussion in the Faculty of Arts, UL, to rethink and possibly redefine some of the institutional practices that lead to equity differences in academic career development. The analyses also provide starting points for a broader discussion of structural problems and regulatory ideas (at national and international levels) that contribute to the existing problem of gender equality and excellence in Slovenia and the EU.

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