AT LEAST 30 per cent of senior positions and professorships at Oxford University will be held by women within five years, it has been pledged.

As part of the United Nations HeForShe campaign, the university has joined nine others and 20 world institutions to make new commitments to gender equality.

The campaign was launched in September by former Headington School pupil and Harry Potter star Emma Watson.

As well as Oxford University’s commitment on senior management roles for women, it has pledged to make “sexual consent workshops” compulsory for all undergraduates, as well as a crackdown on harassment on its campuses.

Vice-chancellor Prof Andrew Hamilton said: “Addressing gender equality and ensuring that Oxford is a safe and inclusive space for all our students have been among my main priorities.

“We have already agreed targets for improving the representation of women in academic roles and we will now consider under the HeForShe campaign how we can achieve greater equality for women across all areas of our work.”