The commitment of NUI Galway to implement significant changes to address gender inequality in its senior academic ranks has been welcomed.

NUIG president Jim Browne tells Education Correspondent Niall Murray his institution is keen to rectify gender imbalance in senior positions as part of its assault on global rankings.

NUI Galway has suspended the use of a pre-employment health screening questionnaire after it was heavily criticised for querying women about their menstrual cycle.

Measures to improve women’s representation at senior academic levels are pointless unless promotion procedures are transparent, says an activist who won a recent high-profile case.

A review of equality policies in third-level colleges is being considered by the Higher Education Authority amid ongoing controversy over a lack of promotion for female academics.

A university forced to pay a lecturer €70,000 for failing to promote her because she was a woman has appointed a leading female academic to help shape its gender equality policies.

Students at NUI Galway have joined the campaign for equal promotional opportunities for their female lecturers after the university was found to have the lowest proportion of women in top jobs.

Legislation aimed at protecting whistleblowers could prove to be a big challenge for employers, writes Kyran Fitzgerald.

A lecturer who won a landmark equality case against NUI Galway is to make her €70,000 award available to help five female colleagues similarly fight their cases.

One of the country’s top universities has been heavily criticised for discriminating against female staff by denying them promotions and favouring male academics.

GARDAÍ arrested four human rights protestors yesterday after they staged a sit-down inside the Dutch Embassy in Dublin.