With the appointment of two new senior executives, UTS has achieved what is still a rarity in both the public and private sectors, an equal representation of men and women in top-level roles.

Dr Rosalind Dubs has joined the executive as Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (External Relations) and Registrar, while Professor Shirley Alexander has moved from Dean of Education to Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Teaching, Learning and Equity).

The fact that four of eight executive positions, along with that of the UTS Chancellor, are now held by women reflects UTS's long history of being an employer of choice for women, according to Director of the UTS Equity and Diversity Unit Anne Maree Payne.

"UTS has earned an Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) citation every year since the Employer of Choice for Women award was launched in 2001 and has been rated as a best practice organisation by EOWA for more than ten years," Ms Payne said.

"There are very few Australian universities that have such a high percentage of women in senior academic and administrative positions.

"This is the case across all sectors of the university. Last year the overall representation of women staff at UTS was greater than 50 per cent (50.5), and the number of academic women was greater than 40 per cent (40.4). Women constituted 57.2 per cent of general staff," Ms Payne said.

UTS also has a strong record in relation to academic promotion for women. In 2005 – the most recent data available – women constituted 47.5 per cent of those promoted, a figure well above their workforce participation rate as academic staff," Ms Payne said.

Dr Dubs comes to UTS with wide-ranging commercial and international experience in both the private and public sectors.

As part of multinational electronics company Thales SA, she was the Paris-based Operations Vice-President of its world-leading air traffic management business, and prior to that Managing Director of the navaids business line in Stuttgart, Germany.

Most recently Director of Electronic Systems with Thales joint venture company ADI Limited, her earlier career included senior positions in CSIRO, Registrar of the Australian National University and Director of Operations Support for Airservices Australia.

Professor Alexander has worked at UTS for the past 14 years, having previously held the positions of Director of the Institute for Interactive Media and Learning and Dean of the Faculty of Education.

She has an international reputation for her research on the use of information and communication technologies in education.

She was a member of the Committee for University Teaching and Staff Development (CUTSD) from 1997 – 1999 and of the Australian Universities Teaching Committee (AUTC) from 2000-2004.