The UCD governing authority has voted overwhelmingly to approve the university's 1997-98 promotions despite accusations of discrimination against women lecturers.
The vote on the issue at yesterday's meeting of the authority was 27 in favour, three against and five abstentions.
A group of eight women lecturers had written a letter to authority members expressing their "dismay at the gender imbalance" in the proposed promotions. They also accused UCD of being in breach of both the Employment Equality Act and the Universities Act.
They pointed out that this year only one out of 20 associate professor posts had gone to a woman, although nearly one in five of the candidates was a woman.
After yesterday's vote, UCD's director of public affairs, Dr Tony Scott, said in a statement: "The governing authority reasserted its commitment to equality of opportunity and gender balance. A new equal opportunities committee is being formed and will be asked to review the promotions procedures with regard to specific measures which might be put in place to rectify the gender issue." Dr Scott said the women lecturers' letter had been read and fully discussed at the meeting. It had also heard a report from the outgoing equal opportunities committee.
One of the women lecturers said she was "appalled" at the vote. Another said it appeared that the governing authority had merely "rubber stamped" the decisions of the faculties and the central College Promotions Board.
UCD's Governing Authority consists of the president, Dr Art Cosgrove, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and representatives of senior administrative staff, professors, non-professorial academic staff, non-academic staff, the students union, postgraduate students, nominees from the Minister for Education, the National University of Ireland and outside organisations, elected NUI graduates, and county councils. Eleven of its 40 members are women.