A Woman Of Principal; Joan Stringer didn't set out to become the

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Sep 28, 2003 | by Barry Didcock

IN whatever field you care to name - government, business, media - the message to women seeking to break the glass ceiling is this: you can (and do) excel academically, but only ruthlessness and sharp elbows will take you further. Think of Margaret Thatcher, Nicola Horlick, Rebekah Wade.

Clad as she is in a grey-blue business suit, I can't speak for Joan Stringer's elbows. But for someone who is regarded in political circles as an exemplar of such female dynamism, her rise through the academic ranks seems to have been marked by a refreshing lack of ruthlessness. She may be the first woman to head a Scottish university but she is, in many ways, the accidental principal.

"I wouldn't put it quite that way," she laughs, "there's been a little bit more design to it than that. It's about seizing opportunities as well. I guess part of me is ambitious, but it's not just naked ambition." But, she adds: "I've never had a career plan beyond saying, 'What might I do next after this? I like to be in the midst of change and growth and development. I like taking new things forward."

The "new thing" she's currently taking forward is Napier University. She took over as principal in January from Professor John Mavor having spent six years as principal of its Edinburgh neighbour, Queen Margaret College. Prior to that she was at The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen for 16 years, where she progressed to become head of school in Public Administration and Law. As a woman pursuing a career in the academic world, she has clocked up a significant number of "firsts".

So how does it feel to be Scotland's first female university principal? "Pretty good," she says. "I'm very pleased that barrier has been broken and I hope it means others will follow suit. Women in higher education in Scotland have found it difficult to reach the top of the profession and questions need to be asked about why that is."

The questions can be asked, of couse, but the answers aren't always easy to come by. "If we knew the answer we'd have the solution," she says. "It's not a simple, straighforward 'Women are being disciminated against, therefore ' There are cultural issues, there are attitude issues. We need to make certain that there is awareness in organisations that the way we do things can cause discrimination to take place in a way that's not intended."

Born in Stoke in 1948, Joan Stringer initially went to art college after leaving school to train as a graphic designer. Becoming interested in politics and economics, she attended day release classes at her local technical college and at the age of 24 enrolled at Keele University. "I was really miffed to be classed as a mature student," she laughs, "but it was a wonderful university for me. I couldn't have gone to a better one, given the background I'd come from. It was a little like a Scottish university because it had this philosophy of a broad education. In the first year we just studied everything across the entire curriculum."

Alongside her studies at Keele, Stringer took a teaching qualification and by 1980 she was lecturing and undertaking research in the fields of politics and public administration at what was then Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology in Aberdeen. Someone, somewhere was paying attention, however, and in 1991 she was awarded a CBE - posh frock, Buck House, the lot. She chuckles at the memory: she still has to wear the honour on formal occasions.

Moving to Queen Margaret College, she oversaw the completion of a new campus, which gave her the experience of estates management that she will put to good use at Napier, where she has plans to "rationalise" the university's four main campuses into three: the out- of-town Sighthill site will go.

"I'd like Napier to be regarded as one of the best teaching universities in the UK and certainly the top modern university in Scotland. And I would like us to be successful in meeting the - how should I put it? - research/knowledge transfer agenda that we've set ourselves."

There is much of this sort of talk. Stringer is adept at prospectus-speak. There is mention of challenges and the need to set out broad strategic priorities; of potential for growth; of the need to protect academic values. There is talk, too, of threats and opportunities.

But if she occasionally sounds like one of her own press releases, there's an ebullience to her which carries the day. She seems like someone who can get things done, which is perhaps why her name appears on so many committees. Among her current public and ministerial appointments are the following: vice-convenor of Universities UK (a body representing all UK universities), chair of the Scottish Steering Group on Performance Indicators in Higher Education and let's not forget her membership of the Scottish Council for Post-Graduate Medical and Dental Education. She has also served on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and as a commissioner with the Equal Opportunities Commission.

More pertinent, however, is her position as chair of the Scottish Executive's Strategic Expert Group on Women, set up in February by communities minister Margaret Curran. Its job is to make recommendations which will help the Executive formulate women- friendly policies.