Trinity’s first female leader seeks to deliver on change promise

The first female leader of the Republic of Ireland’s most celebrated university is happy to admit that the backdrop chosen for one of her official photographs was no accident.

“We thought we’d have a bit of a laugh,” Linda Doyle said of being pictured in front of the statue of George Salmon, the former provost who infamously declared that women would be admitted to Trinity College Dublin “over my dead body”.

“I’ve been told that he might not have actually said ‘no women at Trinity’, but it’s reported that he died on the Friday and women were admitted to the college on Monday,” said Professor Doyle, whose tenure as provost since August has ended a 429-year stretch of all-male leadership at Ireland’s oldest university. “Students today will find it hard to imagine that there was ever a question that women should go to university or not – or that women should have a vote.”

The landmark significance of Professor Doyle’s appointment is not lost on many in Ireland, yet it did not feature heavily in her election campaign – for all three candidates were women. “That was fantastic because it took the issue out of the conversation – I’m glad that it wasn’t a big discussion point,” she said.

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Her election was also the latest milestone in a remarkable transformation of Ireland’s historically all-male sector leadership, which saw the country’s first female university president appointed only last year. Now four of Ireland’s 10 universities are led by a woman.

“It was a ridiculous situation,” says Professor Doyle. “We had all these institutions in Ireland talking about inclusivity and diversity – and it’s proven that you get better productivity and decision-making if you have a diverse team – so it was a natural move.”

That influx may herald a shift in leadership practices, she said, stating that she “brings a different way of leading – some of which is personality-driven, but some also comes from my gender”.

“I have a very collaborative approach to leadership. Sometimes people think about power in a very particular way, which involves seeming to be strong or not ever losing face. I have a very different way about going about things,” she explained.

That may stem from her engineering background, for she enjoys “dealing with large, complex issues, joining the dots and making connections”, Professor Doyle reflected. “But where I’ve led before, people have commented on this style and said that it is maybe connected more to a woman’s approach to things.”

Her Imagine Trinity 2030 manifesto sets out her intention to create a more inclusive and listening administration. It pledges to devolve power, including a promise to tackle an “increased concentration of power at the centre” of the university by ensuring that “diverse voices are heard” via “true and real consultation…that results in action.”

“Our schools have a certain amount of determination, but they tend to have a lot of responsibility without any authority to make changes,” explained Professor Doyle. She said was keen to keep the “rich variation” of cultures between schools but also to ensure that “people have a voice that is real rather than us pretending that we are doing consultation”.

Other promised changes are perhaps even more challenging, such as addressing precarious employment practices and reforming promotions to reflect different types of excellence. “I don’t have the full answers yet,” admitted Professor Doyle, who added that because “we do not have a sustainable funding model in Ireland”, with only 40 per cent of funding coming from the government, it was difficult to enact radical change.

“But often we do not recognise some of the key work that keeps the university going – such as teaching, or the different types of leadership at school or faculty level – [and] sometimes we don’t have the balance right in recognising research [as well as] the different tasks and leadership that we need,” said Professor Doyle.

Trinity’s prominence in last year’s BBC television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s wildly popular novel Normal People – detailing the emotional lives of two Trinity students – has also brought renewed focus on the university’s elitist reputation, given the struggles and alienation of the working-class protagonist, Connell. “That perception of being ‘elitist’ is a conundrum as some people find that to be attractive and others unattractive,” said Professor Doyle, who added that Trinity did not receive enough credit for its efforts to be inclusive.

“We have done amazing work in terms of access, and our model has now been copied by Oxford,” she said, adding that it has gone further on, for instance, offering certificates of education for people with intellectual disabilities.

“We had a visit from Emmanuel Macron recently, and he met many of these students – he was really impressed by them, but also that a research-intensive university had made efforts to include people from every walk of life. All these things are so important in changing what people perceive as an excellent university.”

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com

Linda Doyle will be speaking at THE Campus Live UK&IE, being held in London on 24-25 November. Click here to register.