Universities have become increasingly complex places with the growth in the number and diversity of the student body and the accompanying expansion of staff teaching and researching in universities globally (Marginson, 2016).  Institutions like those in the UK, that are the starting point for the research in these four symposium papers, are increasingly characterised by the diversity of their students in terms of, for example, their class, ethnicities, genders, sexualities, nationalities, religions, first languages and (dis)abilities: although there are hierarchies, relating to different forms of access, learning experience and outcomes that also relate to their backgrounds and experiences (McLean et al, 2019)  The same hierarchies exist between academic staff who do the teaching and research: those with different backgrounds, experiences and characteristics have different contracts, experiences, outcomes and relationships with universities when considered as a group (Courtois and O’Keefe, 2019).  Hence, we argue that higher education research requires theoretical lenses that capture this complexity and propose that the concept of intersectionality, whilst often a hotly contested idea, is useful for consideration and further development (Museus, 2011). 

The symposium begins with a short introduction and a brief discussion of the concept of intersectionality and its use in higher education research. 

The first paper in this symposium by Andrea Abbas illustrates the value of 6 composite characters as ways of representing and presenting a theorised intersectional analysis of 14 diverse national and international academics in social sciences and humanities over a period of 11 years.

The second paper by Gihan Ismail reports findings from a qualitative study on the experiences of 22 Arab international doctoral students and 6 British supervisors in UK universities and highlights the importance of her intersectional analysis to the significance of managing difference (Zanoni et al., 2010) because it captures the implications of the gendered portrayals of international students with regard to how knowledges from students host countries are marginalised and epistemic injustices arise from this.

The third paper by Jie Gao examines the importance of an intersectional approach to examining how UK educated and domestic educated Chinese apply their professional knowledge in Law and IT in Chinese workplace. It brings out the issue of gender inequality and discrimination and regional differences in these. Participants from my research argue that gender representations and gender roles are not only influencing their social identities, but they intersect with national profession-related stereotypes in China which have significant influence on participants’ formation of their professional identity.

The fourth paper by Sally Hewlett analyses the experience of academics providing support for students with disabilities. It captures aspects of the global rise in the numbers of students declaring a disability and how policy decisions in the UK, confer the responsibility for inclusive practice on to individual universities. Individual lecturers who are first point of contact for students with disabilities, play a key role in their support and are central to the delivery of disability policies in higher education such as an “inclusive teaching and practice” agenda (Disabled Student Sector Leadership Group, 2017, p.3). This work falls disproportionately on women who themselves have intersecting identities. 

The discussion of these papers at the end of the symposium focuses on the whether intersectionality is a valuable concept and its role in gendered, feminist and other higher education research.

Courtois, A., O'Keefe, T., 2019, '‘Not one of the family’: Gender and precarious work in thDisabled Student Sector Leadership Group, 2017. Inclusive Teaching and Learning in Higher Education as a route to Excellence. London: Department for Education. Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/att achment_data/file/587221/Inclusive_Teaching_and_Learning_in_Higher_Educa tion_as_a_route_to-excellence.pdf [Accessed 22 December 2021]. e neoliberal university.' Gender, Work and Organization, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 463-479. Marginson, Simon. "The Worldwide Trend to High Participation Higher Education." Higher Education 72.4 (2016): 413-34. Web. McLean, M., Abbas, A. and Ashwin, P. (2019) How Powerful Knowledge Disrupts Inequality in Undergraduate Education, Bloomsbury: London. Museus, Samuel D. "Mapping the Margins in Higher Education: On the Promise of Intersectionality Frameworks in Research and Discourse." New Directions for Institutional Research 2011.151 (2011): 5-14. Web.