And I also had the pleasure in helping to award the @casaucl.bsky.social prize for spatial analysis, in memory of Sinesio Alves Junior, with @adamdennett.bsky.social and other CASA researchers, to the well deserving @chris-larkin.bsky.social for his PhD work on cycling and low traffic neighbourhoods

Future work will integrate intersectional approaches with gender and ethnicity to deepen understanding of these dynamics, but these findings emphasise the value of place-based analysis in addressing gender disparities and guiding policy.

The use of statistical methods through a feminist lens offers a foundation for targeted interventions: our results suggest a greater focus on departments in equality initiatives and adjustments to funding policies to enhance diversity in PhD cohorts, particularly in male-dominated disciplines.

Institutional histories and geography also matter: in Scottish and Northern Irish universities students are more likely to be female compared with English universities, while the likelihood in Wales is lower.

Using the British Library's EThOS data, we identify ‘department-like units’ as pivotal. Accounting for 10.7% of the variation in the likelihood a PhD student is female - more than any other grouping. STEM fields remain male-skewed, while the Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences show a female skew.

Gender in HE research focuses on micro-or-macro-scale factors - power relations, work practices, discipline norms - overlooking the meso-scale of ‘place’ (e.g. departments & universities). We bridge that gap by applying data science and multilevel models to analyse UK gendered PhD completion trends.