Paderborn University President, Professor Birgitt Riegraf has been elected to the board of the “European Women Rectors Association” (EWORA). Established in Brussels in 2015, EWORA brings together female rectors and presidents of higher education institutes in Europe. EWORA aims to establish a Europe-wide network to transfer and spread knowledge and experience among women leaders in academia, while also developing common strategies and policies to be proposed to decision makers in European funding programmes. EWORA counts regular conferences and workshops on current topics relating to higher education policy among its activities. It awards prizes - most recently giving an honorary award to the Swedish government - and provides a platform for publications focusing on higher education management. The other members of the Board of Directors come from universities in Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Iceland, Turkey and Greece. Riegraf has already begun her four-year term of office, saying,
“I am looking forward to working as a member of the board, cooperating with the other female rectors and scientists active in shaping higher education policy to promote the establishment of networks even more going forward, and to further increasing our visibility in Brussels in order to represent the interests of women in academia.”
Furthermore, Riegraf has also recently joined the committee of the North Rhein-Westphalian Rector’s Conference (Landesrektorenkonferenz NRW), is Chair of the German University Alliance (UA) 11+, and has been appointed to the German Research Foundation (DFG) working group, “Research-Oriented Standards on Gender Equality.”
