INTERVIEW WITH THE DEAN
and select, so that’s something I work on a lot at the university and in the faculty, to try and ensure that our processes are as unbiased as possible.” The HEC Lausanne dean details how the school has developed a mini-massive open online course on selection bias that is now mandatory for staff and faculty to watch before they participate in hiring committees. Also available on a voluntary basis are what she terms “sensitisation trainings” held with an improvisation theatre group. Recalling one example on the topic of sexual harassment, Schmid Mast explains: “The group acts out scenes where, let’s say, a professor makes an unnecessary comment about a student’s appearance or something similar. Then the audience thinks about solutions – for example, if a witness could intervene. It’s a typical situation you might find in a meeting where somebody makes an inappropriate joke and everybody laughs, but really you should say something.” The value of values The same theatre group also plays a part in workshops on integrity, as part of HEC Lausanne’s recently established onboarding days initiative at bachelor’s level. In this, first-year students are introduced to each of the school’s RICE values (rigour, integrity, collaboration and entrepreneurship), with the aim of facilitating their integration into the university environment and requirements of its curriculum.
can go further. “It’s great to do it for women, but we should do it for everybody who has an institutional leadership role, either before they start in these positions, or right at the beginning.” Widening access for women Of course, that doesn’t mean the HEC Lausanne dean is satisfied with the current level of gender equity in higher education leadership. When asked if opportunities for women to reach the highest positions in the industry have improved in recent years, her reply is forthright: “The glass is either half full or half empty, meaning that things have improved a little and the number of female professors has increased over the years, but it’s still very low when compared to the pool of available female talent who are completely capable of doing it.” In Switzerland, one issue Schmid Mast identifies is the notion that families can live on one income alone. This has proven difficult to dispel in a country that ranks among the world’s highest for GDP per capita, which “gets you into very traditional gender roles”. “There are tonnes of programmes to foster female leadership,” she continues, “but many people are against them because they believe it implies that something is wrong with the women and that you need to fix the system so that they can advance. Plus, there is bias from the people who promote
Above left: HEC Lausanne is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva Right: Collaboration is one of the business school’s core values
21
Business Impact • ISSUE 6 • 2025
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online